Principals and school staff must follow the
Work-Related Violence in Schools Policy,
Work-Related Violence in Schools Procedure and
Resource section which are available in the
Policy and Advisory Library (PAL).
Corporate and regional staff should refer to the following information.
Work-related violence
Work-related violence refers to all forms of physical and verbal attacks and threatening conduct. Discrimination, sexual and other forms of harassment, bullying, violence and threatening behaviour are deemed to be unacceptable in any of the department's workplaces.
Relevant sections of the OHSMS
Where/when would these issues be relevant?
All department employees, parents, contractors and visitors in department workplaces are expected to act in ways which are not aggressive and threatening to others.
Work-related violence can occur in a number of settings including at the workplace; off site situations such as social functions; at an employee’s home, in a public place or at a community event as a direct result of a person’s role as a department employee or, increasingly so, within cyberspace through threatening website postings, emails and SMS.
What do you need to do?
- Consult with health and safety representatives (HSR) and employees to determine when and where these issues occur.
- Identify any particular individuals at risk.
- Correctly identify what is creating the hazard for those individuals.
- Take action to control the hazards.
- Make sure workplace policies and procedures are in place to manage the risk.
- Provide appropriate information, instruction and training for employees so they have the awareness, knowledge and skills to identify risk factors associated with work-related violence, the signs of impending violence and the appropriate prevention measures to control these kinds of risks.
- If an incident is reported act in accordance with the Department's policies and procedures as set out in the Emergency and Security Management Guidelines.
- Serious workplace incidents will require that you notify the Victorian WorkCover Authority (WorkSafe) also. Notifiable incidents are incidents that result in death or a serious injury. A serious injury involves immediate medical treatment or medical treatment within 48 hours of exposure to a substance. In summary, incidents involving injuries sustained from plant, broken bones, injuries requiring stitches, the administering of a drug, the loss of bodily functions or the exposing of the general public to the risk of a serious hazard are some of the issues considered to be reportable incidents.
- Enter all incident data into eduSafe Plus as soon as possible after the incident.
OHS legislation
- Occupational Health and Safety Act 2004
- Occupational Health and Safety Regulations 2017
Contact us
OHS Advisory Service on ph. 1300 074 715 or email:
safety@education.vic.gov.au
Incident Support Operations Centre on 1800 126 126 (24 hour service)
Further information