Thousands of stressed, injured SA teachers awarded $169.1m in workers compensation, FOI data shows

A primary school teacher awarded almost $1m for a mental health claim is among the thousands of educators receiving injury payouts. Search the interactive table.

More 7400 worker compensation claims worth more than $169m have been awarded to teachers over the past decade. Pictures: iStock and Thinkstock

More than half of the tens of millions taxpayers spent on educator payouts are for stress-induced injuries, including an almost $1m mental health claim awarded to a primary school teacher, official figures show.

Education Department data, released under Freedom of Information laws, reveals almost 7400 worker compensation claims, worth more than $169.1m, were awarded over the past decade.

While the Opposition and unions said the data laid bare acute school problems, the state government said it was appropriate injured staff were supported.

But amid mounting concerns at rising teaching pressures, 1466 “mental stress” claims accounted for more than half of all state system payouts awarded since 2014 – costing taxpayers nearly $89.3m.

SA Primary Principals Association president, Tobias O’Connor, said the data wasn’t surprising as being a “teacher or leader in a school has never been so tricky” while despite best efforts to manage work health and safety, accidents do happen.

“Students are more complex; at times, the pace and workload can be unmanageable and the expectations of parents and society keep adding to daily pressures,” he said.

“The rise in violence towards teachers and leaders has been well reported as is the rise in online hostility from parents towards leaders and teachers.

“I’m sure all of these issues contribute to stress, burnout and poor mental health outcomes, which lead to claims.”

The FOI showed almost $44m was awarded to 661 education workers for “work pressure” while a further $28.2m was paid to 452 staff suffering job-related “harassment and/or workplace bullying”.

Almost $23m in claims were for either exposure to workplace or occupational violence or physical assaults.

More than $1m was paid out to victims of “racial harassment”.

The internal data, based on successful claims, reveals the highest individual payout of almost $1.1m was awarded to an unidentified support worker in 2016 after they fell from a “height”.

Another primary school teacher, whose details were not disclosed, was paid out $1.045m after a “same level” fall while almost $924,000 was given to a colleague for “mental stress” and “work pressure”.

Almost a third of the top 20 claims were successful for “mental stress”, the FOI data showed.

An average payout was $22,963.81.

The most common payout were 1936 falls, trips or slips worth almost $31m in compensation.

Primary school teachers had the most payouts, secondary school colleagues the next highest and then classroom aides.

The figures show two staffer classified as either a chief executive or managing director were given payouts totalling $28.90.

Australian Education Union president Jennie-Marie Gorman said it was “interesting in the number of payouts and amounts being paid for issues that apply to health and safety”, which she hoped to work with the department to address.

Opposition spokesman John Gardner, a former Education Minister, said individual sets of circumstances were behind all cases that justify payouts, it removed “a lot of teachers” from the classroom and tens of millions of dollars not supporting students’ learning.

Opposition spokesman John Gardner. Picture: NewsWire / Ben Clark

Education Minister Blair Boyer. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

“These figures are just another example of the challenges facing our schools as they confront the greatest teacher shortage in decades,” he said.

Education Minister Blair Boyer said schools should be a safe environment for everyone as he encouraged reporting of any issues while noting the value of payouts was trending down.

“We have taken strong action to support students and teachers in the classroom, including implementing a number of significant policy changes,” he said.

“Unfortunately, workplace injuries do happen and it’s appropriate that agencies support staff when incidents do occur.”

He said authorities had improved manual handling policies, cracked down on students’ behaviour through self-regulation trials and a vow to stamp out unacceptable behaviour of people from “outside the school site”.