Small businesses mental health suffers under IR pressure
More than a third of small business operators have been diagnosed with a mental health condition amid the cost-of-living crisis, an increase in red tape and Labor’s industrial relations changes.
More than a third of small business operators have been diagnosed with a mental health condition in the face of the cost-of-living crisis, an increase in red tape and Labor’s onerous changes to the industrial relations system.
The Australian Chamber of Commerce national work health and safety survey – completed by more than 300 businesses – showed 34 per cent of operators had a diagnosed mental illness, compared to 22 per cent identified in the 2022 small business and mental health report.
Of those suffering a mental health condition, 23 per cent of operators had been diagnosed with anxiety, 17 per cent with depression and 15 per cent with a stress-related problem.
The surge in mental ill-health diagnoses follows skyrocketing costs associated with 13 interest rate rises and out-of-control inflation that peaked at 7.8 per cent in December 2022.
ACCI chief executive Andrew McKellar also identified Labor’s amendments to the Fair Work Act last year – which allowed for multi-employer bargaining – as a flashpoint for small business operators.
“It’s one of the drivers (of operators’ mental health challenges),” he said.
“Business advocates like us, we say ‘there’s too much red tape’ … That’s very cold. It’s very abstract. What this survey shows is there’s actually a human cost.
“The fact that 34 per cent, so a third of all small business owners, are saying ‘I’m actually at a position largely, or at least partly, as a result of the pressures I face in my business where I’ve gone to my doctor, gone to a medical professional and that medical professional, that doctor, has said you have anxiety or you have depression or a stress related condition’ … it’s an alarming result.”
The research comes off the back of a survey by the ACCI last year that showed more than 80 per cent of small businesses identified compliance and regulation as their biggest issue, with more than 60 per cent responding that the burden of that regulation had increased over the previous 12 months, and nearly half revealing they were considering closing their doors as a result.
On top of the omnibus bill of industrial relations reforms passed last year, small businesses were also concerned over the burden that impending changes to the Privacy Act would have on them.
Peak business lobbies, including the ACCI and Council of Small Business Organisations Australia, have been calling for greater exemptions for small businesses from any privacy reforms, which Labor pursued after major data breaches of companies such as Optus and Medibank resulted in millions of Australians having their personal information exposed.
“The statutory tort in the privacy legislation, we think that’s just nonsense. It’s poor legislation,” Mr McKellar said.
“The absolute consequence of that is going to be that there will be a high risk of class action claims, because you’ve got litigation funders, we’ve got basically professional, dedicated to speculatively wanting to make a return on legal action and driving that sort of activity.”
Despite businesses raising alarm over the potential for more class actions to be taken following small and accidental data breaches, the Attorney-General’s office has stressed the bill made clear “the invasion of privacy has to be serious and it has to be intentional or reckless”.
As part of the ACCI’s push to relieve pressure on small business operators struggling to cope, it called on Labor to set the definition of a “small business” at 25 employees or less, rather than 15, and ensure this definition remained the same across all portfolios.
Mr McKellar said small businesses were simply asking for regulations to be made clearer and simpler, and for the government to conduct proper impact assessments before passing legislation that fundamentally changed how operators did business.
“Something like the right to disconnect, take that as an example, the right to disconnect was never in any of the bills that were put up on workplace relations law, they arrived right at the end … at the insistence of the Greens, and passed within almost 24 hours,” he said.
“So it went from idea, a thought bubble, to legislation, law of the land, within almost 24 hours. No preparation, no consultation, almost no debate, no consideration, no evaluation, no analysis.”
Mr McKellar said that on top of trying to keep up with such sudden changes to workplace relations law, business owners never receive annual leave, sick leave or time off.
“You just have to keep going,” he said.
