The AWU survey, conducted between January and April, represents workers from 114 Queensland Health facilities across the state. Photo: Scott Kenneth Brodie.
The Australian Workers’ Union (AWU) is demanding the Queensland Government addresses the unusually high rate of violence against public hospital workers.
AWU’s survey of 1279 Queensland Health workers revealed more than 69 per cent of staff had either been assaulted or witnessed one in the workplace.
The union’s Queensland secretary, Stacey Schinnerl, said Queensland Health was not giving workplace violence the attention it deserved.
“Our frontline health workers deserve to feel safe in the workplace, but right now our public hospitals are anything but safe,” said Ms Schinnerl. “The rate of violence being reported by staff wouldn’t be acceptable in any other sector.”
The survey had input from across the Queensland Health workforce, including from security officers, nurses, cleaners, wards people, food services workers, health professionals and administration staff.
It also showed many similarities in the self-reported rate of violence between metropolitan and regional areas.
Some of the key issues identified by workers include a lack of protective equipment for security and staff (63 per cent), training that isn’t fit for purpose (74 per cent) and a deficit of security staff in public hospitals (70 per cent).
Alarmingly, 17 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they never received any training at all with regards to workplace violence.
Ms Schinnerl said workers were putting forward a plan to the State Government bearing five commonsense measures that would help mitigate the violence they were experiencing.
“Our entire workplace health and safety system is built on the premise that workers know best when it comes to their safety at work,” said Ms Schinnerl.
“We will be putting this plan to government, Queensland Health and members of parliament this week – it’s time for our politicians to work together and act on this issue.”
The AWU’s Queensland Health Workplace Violence Action Plan includes:
- Queensland Health introducing a standardised minimum level of protective equipment across Queensland Health facilities for security and staff
- Queensland Health ditching the failed MAYBO and MAPA training models and replacing them with a fit-for-purpose training system
- A clearly defined zero tolerance policy for violence, with assaults on Queensland Health staff treated as ‘serious assaults’ under the criminal code
- Queensland Health committing more security personnel to hospitals across the entire system
- Streamlining WorkCover claims for Queensland Health staff and better post-assault support.
Ms Schinnerl said Queensland Health’s approach to security issues required reform, as it usually considered it an operational issue to be dealt with by local hospital and health services.
“This survey proves there is a system-wide issue that requires a system-wide response.”
