Claims of escalating violence push youth detention workers onto picket line

Workers at Queensland’s youth detention centres have walked off the job, calling for more staff amid claims violence is escalating with a real risk of staff suffering ‘life-changing injuries'.

Dozens of youth detention workers have walked off the job in a major protest against critical staff shortages exacerbating health and safety concerns.

It’s understood about 80 to 100 workers are expected to assemble at the picket line on Thursday morning, leaving a skeleton crew at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre and West Moreton Youth Detention Centre. Cleveland Detention Centre in Townsville was also impacted.

There have been claims of escalating violence against detention workers by youth detainees, including in recent days with one child understood to have been found with about eight shivs in their rooms.

Australian Workers Union spokesman Joseph Kaiser said workers faced imminent risk of “life changing injuries” due to chronic staffing shortages.

He said statistics revealed that there were more than five assaults in all three detention centres per week.

Workers at the Brisbane Youth Detention Centre walk off the job over safety concerns.

“Those statistics wouldn’t be acceptable in any other workplace, in the public service or any other industry in modern Australia.”

“When I’m talking about over five assaults per week last year, I’m talking about punching, kicking, spitting, broken bones, acquired brain injury, life changing injuries that are occurring to these workers.”

Mr Kaiser said Thursday’s walk out was sparked by a violence against workers reaching a “fever pitch”.

“Especially in the last few weeks, just this morning, a youth worker at Brisbane Youth Detention Centre was punched in the face,” he said.

“Yesterday at West Morton Youth Detention Centre behind me, where three staff members were assaulted by a young person holding an improvised knife.

“When they took that person back to their room, they found eight other knives in the room, this is a disgrace.”

The union is demanding their employer rectify the attraction and retention issue for the “challenging” roles at youth dentition centres.

“Right now, the government is throwing the kitchen sink at a whole other multiple other cohorts of the public service to try to attract and retain the staff they need,” said Mr Kaiser.

“It’s the exact same thing here … it means young people are still in their rooms not receiving meaningful rehabilitation.”

He said that shortages meant Brisbane Youth Detention Centre was fully staffed for only six days in the last financial year, while estimates showed 80 per cent of the Cleveland Youth detention centre was locked down at any given time.

“That means kids in their rooms, not receiving meaningful rehabilitation, not receiving meaningful schooling, not playing sport, not socialising, not learning how to be normal human beings.”

Mr Kaiser said that staff had worked with centre management to leave a skeleton crew behind at both centres.

“These people behind me care about these kids more than anyone and they spend more time with them more than anyone.”

“They don’t want to see them harm, but they need real action now for their health and safety because it’s not just their health and safety, it’s young people’s health and safety as well.,” he said.

Mr Kaiser said that workers felt no meaningful changes had occurred in detention centres since the state government introduced its youth justice reforms.

“We need radical action. What we need is a fix for the chronic staffing shortage,” he said.

He said that despite the one to four staff to young person ratio outlined in the enterprise agreement, management was ignoring staffs dynamic risk assessments resulting in assaults against staff.

“That’s a hard cap on the number of people you can take out of a room,” he said.

“So they’re being asked to take out kids that are telling them that they’re going to hit them the second they walk out of the room, they’re calling it up, and management is ignoring it.”

Mr Kaiser said that before the demonstration, there had been a notice to appear at the Queensland Industrial Relations Commission.

“There’ll be going there trying to find a way to get these workers back in the job, our message is loud and clear.”

“They need to fix this the crisis in youth detention staffing, now, and that’s what we need to make this a safe workplace.”