Page 613 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 2019
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both took our complaints with the seriousness that they required. One cannot underestimate the willingness of the Education Directorate and the minister to address the issue of OV in public schools as I know from my counterparts in other states and territories that no other education system in Australia was willing to genuinely tackle the problem of OV in schools.
Our union decided on a four-pronged approach to tackling this issue. We would contribute to the WorkSafe investigation, use our position on the Work Safety Council, advocate for change through the Minister and work with the Education Directorate to effect change. We have done all of this in spades and then some.
We have engaged more employees to work to effect change in the way OV is addressed in schools and to provide support, advocacy and advice to members experiencing OV in their workplaces, to consult, draft policies, set agendas, solve problems, provide training, draft complaints, attend meetings, research best practice and closely support our members who have been injured. Some of our employees have potentially experienced vicarious trauma due to the exposure to the trauma our members have experienced.
I am proud of the work that our union has done to effect real change for our members experiencing OV in their workplaces. I am proud that we have dedicated hours, weeks, months, and years of work to keep our members safe in their workplaces. I am proud of our members, our union and our office staff for tackling what up until now has been a silent problem, the problem of OV in schools.
I am proud that we have embarked on this journey with the Education Directorate and with the Minister for Education Yvette Berry. No one of us alone could have worked to effect real change in this space. Real change to address OV in schools could only occur through a collaborative approach.
You may ask what has all this work led to? Firstly, I must contend that the work is not finished, and we are still on the journey, we will learn with our members and from our members about how to best minimise the risks that OV poses in workplaces, but we are a long way down the road. We now have a joint understanding that an educator’s right to safety is equal to the rights of families to access education; we have a hazard identification and risk management approach to worker safety in schools; we have a section in the Education Directorate that deals specifically with OV risks; we have workers being trained about the risk of OV; we have open discussions about OV; we have consultation about OV risks; we have enhanced reporting and, due to the work our union undertook, we have a record breaking enforceable undertaking. This year, educators, administrators and unionists from around the country will converge on Canberra for a national forum on OV.
Ms Lee asks, “where were the union?” We were there all along, working away to achieve safe workplaces for our members. We were doing what all good unions do, advocating for our members using all mechanisms available to us. Unlike Ms Lee we did not yell loudly about the work we were doing in order to protect the wellbeing of our members, to protect their right to privacy and to protect their rights to a safe workplace.
Question resolved in the affirmative.
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