Ms ROSOL – I have some questions around workers compensation. What percentage of Tasmania Prison Service staff have been on workers compensation in 2022‑23 and 2023‑24? Do you have a figure for the number that are currently on workers compensation?
Ms OGILVIE – I’ll give you what I’ve got and see if that answers your question. We could do more of a deep dive if we need to. The Tasmania Prisons Service has established processes in relation to identifying risks and hazards to address them. As part of our focus on safety and wellbeing, the WHS team has been working on 19 health and safety initiatives.
We have a raft of those, including wellbeing initiatives and I can run through those. I am getting to the health and safety reps. The next page, thank you. I want to give you the specific information as I can. We take work health and safety seriously. From 1 July 2023 to 30 June 2024, 122 workers compensation claims were received from employees of the TPS. This represents an increase from the 106 claims in 2022‑23.
There has been a downward trend in the number of claims made in the first couple of months of 2023‑24. There is more information that might be helpful to you by way of context. The department’s injury management unit, which is part of the agency’s human resources branch, oversees and provides case management for TPS employees with workers compensation claims.
The injury management unit continues to work closely with the TPS and the Department of Justice workplace health and safety teams to identify risks and implement controls to reduce work-related injuries. I believe that answers the question.
Ms ROSOL – Are you able to give that as a percentage? You have the staff numbers and you said a downward trend in 2023‑24; did you mean the first couple of months of 2024‑25?
Ms OGILVIE – Let me confirm.
Mr WISE – That is correct; in 2024‑25 there has been a downturn.
Ms OGILVIE – Sorry, I might have a typographical error in my notes. Yes, it is a typographical error, 2024‑25.
Ms ROSOL – Thanks. Are you able to give percentages of staff who are on workers compensation? You’ve given figures of the numbers of claims.
Ms OGILVIE – I’ll see if we can get that information for you.
Mr WISE – I haven’t got that in front of me, but I can say that, as you’ve already indicated, the number of claims this financial year has dropped markedly by more than 3 per cent, which is encouraging.
There are still a lot of claims, clearly. It’s a little unhelpful to identify the number of claims because some of those people are actually at work but still receiving medical treatment. Some of them are at work but doing adjusted duties. Some of them are at work in other agencies, so they’re working but not with the Tasmania Prison Service.
It’s a reasonable number of our staff and that is concerning. The good news is that the claims this year have dropped, that the overall cost of claims has reduced over the last couple of years, and the amount of time people spend away from the workplace has reduced also.
Our injury management team has been really successful in getting people back to work more quickly and into suitable duties more quickly, and that is paying dividends. The average cost of the claims has come down markedly.
Ms ROSOL – Are you able to provide a breakdown of some of the key reasons that people are on workers compensation? Is it stress‑related, burnout, bullying and harassment, assaults, workplace injuries – do you have data on that, please?
Mr WISE – I can say that in terms of the physical type injuries and the psychological injuries, in 2023-24 there were 88 of the musculoskeletal injuries and 34 of the psychological injuries. The psychological injuries have reduced by about a third since 2021-22 and, sadly, a lot of the physical injuries are incurred during training for new staff when we go through control and restraint training, and they amount to a significant proportion of the physical injuries.
Ms ROSOL – You referred earlier to an incident in New South Wales in 1987 of a corrections officer being injured with an inner sharps incident. How many assaults are there of corrections officers?
Mr WISE – I do have that information. In 2020-23, there were 30 assaults on staff, three of which were serious. In 2023-24, there were 21 assaults on staff, so a significant decline and only one of those was serious.
There are assaults that result in some sort of physical injury. There are others which we don’t record in that way, for example, someone brushes past the staff member and gives them a nudge or a cup of water is thrown over somebody’s legs and those sorts of things. These are injuries sustained by staff where there was some sort of physical injury.
Ms OGILVIE – Could I just add a comment as well to say we take workplace safety incredibly seriously and it is something that I take a personal interest in as well. I know that work is being done to improve the safety and security of all in our facilities.
I can also add, you asked after a percentage of claims per headcount. The headcount at 604 with 122 claims in the 2022-23 year gives us 20 per cent. I’ve just been advised of that calculation.
Ms ROSOL – With staff off on workers compensation and other types of leave, are there times when you’re needing to bring in contract staff from other states? How are you staffing the prison service?
Mr WISE – We certainly don’t bring in contract staff from other states. Most of those vacancies are filled with overtime by our staff. We have spoken to the unions about employing a casual workforce. We haven’t had much traction on that, but that seems to be an obvious area which might deliver additional staff into workplaces quickly. We certainly don’t contract staff in.
