AWU calls for strengthened workplace violence penalties

The Queensland secretary of the Australian Workers’ Union (AWU), Stacey Schinnerl, will front a parliamentary committee hearing to call on the government to make it clearer in the law that assaults on frontline workers should be treated as “serious assault”.

Assaults on frontline workers have been on the rise throughout the Australian healthcare system. As previously reported on HR Leader, research conducted by Edith Cowan University has revealed a 44 per cent increase in in-hospital assaults in NSW from 2015 to 2018.

The AWU is calling on the confusion to be cleared around section 340 of the Criminal Code 1899, which provides for a crime of “serious assault” against offenders who assault public officers at work.

The Queensland Health workforce is of the confused populace, who are unsure if assaults perpetrated against certain employees are provided for in the code.

The confusion is derived from the high rate of assault in the workplace, which is rarely being classed as “serious assault” against the perpetrators who commit such violent acts against frontline workers.

AWU believes that the code is being underutilised in terms of the assaults against Queensland health workers. This indicates that the current wording of the section does not clearly include these workers, especially considering the high rates of violence occurring against these workers.

A call for an amendment of the bill is being proposed by the AWU to clarify the scope of the code, so it’s clear that the crime of “serious assault” extends to offenders who assault Queensland Health operational workers while they are performing their work.

“Public hospital workers are subject to escalating levels of violence in the workplace,” said Schinnerl.

“Recent data provided by Queensland Health to the Courier Mail in May suggested that we were on track to record over 45 assaults on hospital staff per day in the 2023–2024 financial year.”

“Every worker deserves to come home at the end of their shift the same way they started it, and every worker deserves to be safe at work.”

Workers of various roles in the healthcare system have been victims of workplace violence. It will be interesting to see the decision made around the potential amendment.

“The AWU is unapologetic in the belief that offenders who perpetrate violence against public servants in the course of their duty should face the full extent of the law,” Schinnerl said.

“The current rate of violence in our public hospitals is an embarrassment to our society and requires serious action.”