Evaluating the quality of WHS disclosures by ASX100 companies: Is mandatory WHS reporting necessary?

The current research aims to evaluate the quality of work health and safety (WHS) disclosures by the top 100 companies listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX100) with the view to determining whether mandatory WHS reporting may assist in improving health and safety standards. The 2018 and 2019 annual reports of ASX100 companies were analysed for WHS reporting of injury, illness, near misses and fatalities. Content analysis revealed that very few companies reported WHS metrics; however, companies in more hazardous industries reported more than those in less hazardous industries. Of the metrics that were reported, lagging rather than the more valid and predictive leading metrics were presented. Very few companies disclosed content related to the number of current or ongoing internal or external investigations of serious injury or near misses. These findings demonstrate a lack of reporting overall, as well as inconsistencies in the quality of WHS reporting across companies. Given that the primary purpose of WHS reporting is to improve standards to safeguard workers, the current work suggests that voluntary reporting provides inadequate protection. Mandatory WHS reporting of specific indices by publicly listed companies in their annual reports is proposed as a potential solution to improve and standardise reporting quality and quantity. This form of regulation would also ensure parity of information disclosure among firms and reduce information asymmetries. The need for and merit of standardised reporting, as well as how best to achieve this via policy and practice, are discussed.