Occupational violence and aggression (OVA) is never okay, but if you’re not reporting ALL instances of OVA it makes it much harder for ANMF to help you hold your employers to account, and less likely that the situation will improve.
After any incident, members should notify their employer via an incident report through formal work channels such as VHIMS or RiskMan. Members should then speak to their HSR about the incident and also notify ANMF via the member portal.
You need to report it to your employer so that they know it’s occurred, and can follow up and investigate. It’s also important that there’s a record of it if you need to make a WorkCover claim.
There are two types of incident reports you can submit: a clinical and an OHS report. It is important that you submit both or the data will not be reflected in your employer’s health and safety data. Importantly, when you submit both a clinical and OHS report, it places a duty on your employer to investigate the incident from both perspectives.
You also need to report it to ANMF because we use the data to identify wider trends or workplace-specific issues.
What happens when you submit an OVA report to ANMF?
While it will depend on what type of incident it is, in general after you’ve submitted your OVA report through the ANMF member portal, it will be triaged the to the Branch’s Health and Safety team, and to your ANMF Organiser.
An OHS Officer and your Organiser will then aim to contact you within 48 hours. They will speak with you about the incident, and make sure that you’ve got any immediate help you need or are aware of supports you can access. They will also try to identify any gaps in the systems of work at your employer, or what may have caused the incident, or what your employer should or shouldn’t have done.
They may provide you with WorkCover information and then, depending on what you want to do, look at escalating the matter formally with your employer. The Branch will then work with the employer to suggest solutions or recommendations to prevent or reduce the risk of similar incidents occurring in future. In cases where there is a clear failure from an employer to act after repeated incidents of OVA, ANMF may also refer the matter to WorkSafe.
What happens if you don’t report to your employer, HSR and to ANMF?
The Branch meets with all public sector health services at least quarterly for an OVA committee. At that committee, the employer presents their stats on how many OVA incidents are happening in different areas, and their action plan to address it.
Too often, we go to an OVA committee where the employer tells us about all the great programs they are implementing and that their stats were going down. But then we get contacted by members telling us the opposite.
If you are not reporting incidents to your employer, there’s less incentive for them to address known issues in your area: under the Act, if a hazard has been identified then your employer needs to implement control measures to address it.
If you are not reporting to your HSR, they may not be familiar with the details or the number of incidents if they are contacted by your employer to discuss the issue and/or consult about potential controls, or by WorkSafe if they are making inquiries. They therefore may not be able to support the concerns that have been raised. It also means that your HSR might not be aware of issues where they are able to exercise their powers to assist in resolving the concerns.
If you are not reporting incidents to ANMF, we won’t have the bigger-picture data to back you up when you need help. So if you want action to see health and safety issues resolved, you need to report every incident. Thrice.
Tips to make reporting easier
Members often tell us they find submitting via the VHIMs or RiskMan systems tedious or arduous. ANMF (Vic Branch) OHS Officer Amber Blowes has some tips to make it easier.
- The more detailed your report the better, but a little information is better than no information. In other words, it’s better to submit a report with something than to not submit a report at all. You can just use bullet points or only fill in the essential information required, but skip the optional fields.
- Know the name of the area of the hospital you’re working in, and your line manager’s name. This seems really specific, but it causes problems during incident follow-up so it’s important to get this info correct.
- Keep it factual, truthful, to the point. Try to keep emotion out of it.
- Look after yourself first and foremost. Take care of what you need to do to feel emotionally and physically safe following an incident, but ideally you want to submit it as close to the incident as possible. Not only is your memory better and the facts are clearer in your mind, it also gets done and it’s not looming over you. But just as a little information is better than none, submitting after the fact is better than not at all.
- And finally, if you need help speak to your HSR or another person who has done the RiskMan process before.
Mythbusting
Amber notes that the Branch often hears from members who say they don’t report because they don’t have time, or they don’t get paid to do it. In response, she says your employer is required to pay for time spent completing an incident report, and you shouldn’t be asked to do them on your meal breaks or own time.
We have heard from members in some organisations that staff feel they are targeted by the employer if they submit health and safety reports. Amber says that this would be a breach of Victoria’s Occupational Health Act (2004) and in certain cases can result in your employer being prosecuted by WorkSafe. If you do feel you are being discriminated against, contact ANMF.
