Nurses at Thomas Embling Hospital in Melbourne walked off the job for two hours on 14 June due to safety concerns. The action came in the context of a state-wide enterprise agreement dispute between the Victorian government and the union covering mental health workers, the Health and Community Services Union. 

As a forensic mental health facility, Thomas Embling Hospital provides treatment to short and long term patients from the justice system, including those found “not guilty due to mental illness” of violent crimes. The hospital has a rehabilitation focus, with nurses and other health staff acting as “security” within the facility.

Nurses at Thomas Embling are concerned that the increasing acuity of patients and workload demands are leading to increased risk to their safety. Staff are regularly abused or assaulted, and a doctor was stabbed late last year. Nurses are calling for improved staffing of the facility, including a 24-hour response team made up of of health staff and for an increase in services to relieve the heavy pressure. 

This demand for improved safety is shared across the state; 2014 research conducted by the union found that workers in mental health have the highest occupational exposure to violence, three times greater than police. More than one-third of staff reported being assaulted in the 12 months prior to the survey. Despite their difficult work, Victorian nurses are the lowest paid in the country. 

Thomas Embling, after whom the hospital is named, was a doctor involved in trying to make Melbourne’s asylums more humane in the late 1800s. He was also a supporter of the Eureka Stockade and the demand for the eight-hour working day. He is credited with coining the phrase, “Eight hours labour, eight hours recreation, eight hours rest”. In that spirit, nursing staff are continuing their campaign for better working conditions.