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Regulatory oversight is crucial to ensure human rights are protected in closed environments. In Victoria, evidence continues to surface that suggests oversight of the public mental health system is failing consumers. There are, however, several lessons for regulators on how to ensure consumers enjoy equal protection of the law.

Objective To identify what legal workplace protections are available for the mental health consumer workforce in Australia. Methods Review the available common law and legislative protections to identify the general workforce rights and employer responsibilities in Australia. Results Consumer workforce members enjoy protections under employment law, anti-discrimination law, tort law and work health and safety law. Conclusions Consumer workforce members would benefit from understanding and exercising their rights, whereas employers should have better regard to their obligations under common law and legislation. However, further empirical research is needed to assess whether these legislative and policy frameworks sufficiently protect the rights of consumer workers.

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