A Darwin-based former youth detention worker who had two fingers cut off in a cell door is sounding the alarm about understaffing across the NT's prison system. He has been dismayed to discover injured workers in the NT can't sue their employers for compensation and have time-limited access to income and medical support.
Category
📺
TVTranscript
00:00Manuel Del Brocco was a professional basketball player before running sports programs in Darwin's
00:09youth detention centre and then becoming a guard there.
00:13It makes a lot of difference when you tie things, when you lift weights.
00:19He says his life changed forever when a colleague pushing a detainee into a cell slammed the
00:26heavy door on his fingers, severing two of them, in March last year.
00:32He thinks using unnecessary force and haste.
00:35The injury has caused both physical and mental damage.
00:40Culturally, coming from Italy, I'm always thinking that now I think like I'm a cripple.
00:48He also blames his injury on heightened tensions and fatigue in the centre, caused by weeks
00:54of understaffing.
00:55The government says at the time of the incident, rosters were fully staffed.
01:00But Mr Del Brocco says that's incorrect because of absenteeism at the time.
01:05Once you are just two or three guards and most of the time to unlock the gates you have
01:11to do rotations between blocks.
01:15So it was a pretty stressful situation.
01:18Manuel kept quiet about his ordeal, hoping the government would help him find a new job.
01:24It didn't happen, nor he's sounding the alarm to others.
01:27The issue is if you don't have enough staff it's not safe to work there.
01:34The union representing prison staff estimates the network is short 120 workers.
01:40There's really worries that there is going to be a riot or something is going to happen.
01:46Some former staff agree.
01:47The safety levels aren't that good because the lack of staff again.
01:52The turnover of staff is incredible.
01:55The NT government admits it's got an overcrowding, understaffing crisis across its prison network,
02:02but says it's expediting recruitment and moving prisoners between youth and adult facilities
02:08to maximise space and keep staff safe.
02:11Are we short staffed?
02:12Of course we are, but you can't have a record prisoner crisis and not have your staff under
02:17pressure.
02:18Manuel Del Brocco is also worried about the protection available for injured workers.
02:23Under the NT's workers' compensation scheme, he can get up to six years of income and medical
02:29support without having to prove employer negligence.
02:33But the NT is the only Australian jurisdiction where workers can't sue for compensation.
02:39An employer's insurance company decides how much they get.
02:42Overall I'm going to get paid probably six or seven or eight grand.
02:46I think it's not fair.
02:48The government thinks the NT has one of the most generous workers' compensation schemes
02:53in Australia.
02:54Some legal groups think that's right for short-term injuries, but not for many others.
03:00If you have a long-term traumatic injury and that injury is below 15 per cent, then you're
03:07worse off if you can't sue.
03:09Manuel Del Brocco is trying to stay active and positive, and he's found work in the disability
03:15sector.
03:16He wouldn't advise anyone to take up the job he was injured doing, unless safety and compensation
03:22conditions change.
03:24You get the money, but obviously it's not worth it.
03:28Living with the cost of a high-risk job.