WorkSafe Victoria have launched a new community awareness campaign highlighting the need for employers and the community to combat violence and aggression in the workplace.
The ‘It’s never ok’ campaign features a range of advertisements demonstrating the variety of unacceptable behaviours experienced by workers across multiple sectors/industries, including hospitals and nursing homes.
The campaign follows on from its 2017 campaign which focused on violence in healthcare and featured a nurse, paramedic, and aged care worker.
ANMF Health and Safety Rep and Job Rep Alyce features in a video case study for the new campaign. A nurse of 13 years, Alyce talks about the cumulative impact of abuse on her and other nurses.
She explains it can also be as little as an eye roll, which might not feel like much, but experiencing it multiple times throughout a shift from patients or family members can contribute to going home feeling deflated.
‘We are humans, this type of behaviour is really not okay.’
ANMF will soon release a refreshed 10 point plan to end violence and aggression – a guide for health services and an OVA audit pilot project involving several facilities. This will involve focussing on different sections of the plan each month. HSRs and Job Reps will be given an online tool to provide information around their employer’s compliance with the plan. Details will be announced soon.
For resources and campaign material, go to the ‘It’s never ok’ campaign webpage.
View the video: