Young lawyers working for Legal Aid are risking serious physical and mental harm due to violence and trauma threats not being properly managed, the territory's work safety watchdog believes.
Legal Aid ACT was issued an improvement notice after an inspector found the publicly funded organisation had failed to ensure psychosocial risks of violence, aggression and traumatic events and material had been adequately managed.
"The workplace has failed to provide an adequate safe system of work for risk management when it was reasonably practicable to do so," the improvement notice said.
The notice was issued on July 3, and found Legal Aid staff were required to complete work that exposed them to a risk of harm from uncontrolled psychosocial hazards.
"This is evidenced through enquiries with the workplace, whereby the workplace was unable to demonstrate evidence of having an adequate safe system of work for psychosocial risk management," the improvement notice said.
"The workplace contains vulnerable workers whereby there's a high intake of workers under twenty-five years of age. The workplace advised inspectors that the workplace experiences a high rate of staff turnover."
The improvement notice said violence, aggression and traumatic events or material were current psychosocial hazards at Legal Aid.
"The workplace was unable to demonstrate evidence that a risk assessment had been undertaken on all current or reasonably foreseeable psychosocial hazards at the workplace. The workplace does not have a centralised or effective system in place for psychosocial risk management," the notice said.
Legal Aid was also failing to respond adequately to incidents, physical injuries and psychological injuries sustained in the workplace, the notice said.
"The psychosocial hazards confirmed have not been controlled using minimum standard risk management methods," the notice said.
Employers have a primary duty to ensure their workers and other people are not exposed to psychosocial hazards arising from their business or undertaking.
The notice said failure to comply attracted a maximum penalty for individuals of $50,000 and $250,000 for a body corporate.
Legal Aid ACT chief executive John Boersig said the commission had received two provisional improvement notices from WorkSafe ACT in early July.
"We have now formalised our approach in a Risk Register that has been forwarded to WorkSafe and we have ensured that an incident report form is accessible to staff. We utilise a reporting mechanism through supervisor and mangers that allows contemporaneous management of OH&S issues, including in relation to vicarious trauma," Dr Boersig said.
"We have well-practised procures already in place and have made significant investment in training and de-briefing protocols."
Dr Boersig said vicarious trauma was an issue for all frontline service providers and mitigating the impact was integral to the support the commission provided staff.
"It requires ongoing investment in trauma informed approaches and practices; we expect this to continue. A plan is in place to continue dialogue with staff," he said.
"The commission sees OH&S policy as an integral part of ensuring a safe environment for our staff and clients, and will require continue[d] investment.
A spokesman for WorkSafe ACT said he could not comment on specific compliance activity.
"Once evidence of compliance has been provided to a WorkSafe ACT inspector, and they have verified that all specified requirements of the notice have been satisfactorily implemented, they will formally lift the improvement notice," the spokesman said of the process once an improvement notice had been issued.
The spokesman said WorkSafe ACT inspectors had the power to issue infringement notices if actions had not been taken within a certain date.
"[An improvement notice] will specify the actions that must be taken and the date by which the business must satisfy the notice. The recipient of an improvement notice must display a copy at or near the affected workplace (or relevant part of the workplace) where the work is being carried out," the spokesman said.
Almost 70 per cent of Legal Aid ACT's staff had been employed by the commission for less than two years, the 2022-23 annual report showed.
More than 46 per cent of the commission's staff were classified as Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2012.
The ACT Bar Association joined the Law Council of Australia's call for governments around Australia to provide more funding to the legal assistance sector.
ACT Bar Association president Brodie Buckland said access to justice was a fundamental right that should be available to everyone and not a privilege.
"Unfortunately, due to decades of neglect, our legal assistance services are overwhelmed, resulting in the denial of crucial legal support to thousands in need," Mr Buckland said.
Mr Buckland said key initiatives recommended by the independent review of the National Legal Assistance Partnership included substantially increased funding for civil and family violence matters, equitable compensation for private practitioners and work to enhance pay parity.
"It is crucial, particularly in the ACT, to address the issue of access to justice for Indigenous Australians, especially within the criminal justice system, given the link between underfunding and the disproportionate representation of Indigenous peoples in the ACT's prisons," he said.
