WHILE the perception may be that the primary goal of trade unions is to look after workers’ financial health by securing fair and better pay, the objective to protect the physical and mental health of members is paramount. 

No worker should ever go to their place of work and be placed at unmanaged risk of physical or mental injury. However, our members — the vast majority of them women — as a result of too little investment in our education system, are increasingly at too high a risk of experiencing assault and injury in the course of their working day, and/or of poor physical and psychological illness longer term.

Unquestionably, our schools should be safe places for teachers and support staff to work, and for young people to learn. Sadly, the risk of injury and ill-health continues to be very real and growing in our schools.