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Assault Costs Education Department10 October 2003An assault on a Teachers Aide at a School for Special Purposes has led to the NSW Department of Education and Training being fined $160,000 for breaches of the Occupational Health & Safety Act. The unprecedented legal action firmly places inadequate staffing levels as an OHS hazard. The NSW Industrial Relations Commission found the assault could have been prevented with adequate staffing levels. "We are pleased with the result," says John Cahill, Public Service Association Acting General Secretary. "PSA members work in lots of dangerous places; gaols, juvenile detention centres; and even places like the RTA where public counters have the potential to be violent [places]." "We will continue to insist that employers provide a safe working environment for everyone." The PSA, who had prosecuted the Education Department, was awarded 70 percent of costs and 50 percent of the fine. The incident occurred at a special needs school when a teachers' aide was left alone in charge of a number of physically and intellectually disabled students, some of whom were known to be particularly violent. The aide had requested that a teacher be present to assist in the supervision of the children. Her request had not yet been met when a 15-year-old student attacked her. After further assaults she now suffers from post traumatic stress disorder and has not returned to work. The PSA stressed that they apportioned no blame to the intellectually disabled student. In handing down the sentence Justice Michael Walton of the NSW IRC said that the risk to safety posed by the inadequate staff levels "was not only reasonably foreseeable, but the risk of assault was 'known and avoidable'." Justice Walton said the provision of a portable duress alarm, as an alternative to the fixed telephone in the classroom, was an "obvious and practical step" that the Department could have taken to minimise the risk of assault. The case sets a precedent for more prosecutions by recognising inadequate staff numbers as a legitimate OHS hazard. To discuss this and many other interesting OH & S topics visit our discussion boards at http://unionsafe.labor.net.au/shoptalk/ | |
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