NDIS provider to plead guilty after failing to protect worker from sexual assault

A South Australian disability support service will admit to breaching workplace safety laws after a worker was sexually assaulted by a client in 2020.

SafeWork SA launched legal action against SA Support Services in the Employment Tribunal, alleging it failed to protect a support worker from being abused in June 2020.

The male client in his 20s was sentenced to three years and four weeks’ prison, with a non-parole period of 19 months after he pleaded guilty to the assault.

At the time, the sentencing judge said the client had a “serious intellectual disability”, autism spectrum disorder and a history of sexually offending against women.

A lawyer for SA Support Services today told the tribunal it intended to plead guilty to failing to provide a safe system at work, including not giving the worker adequate information about the risk the client posed and not performing an adequate risk assessment.

In Employment Tribunal documents obtained by the ABC earlier this year, SafeWork SA alleged SA Support Services had been “aware … [the client’s] inappropriate behaviours had been escalating”.

“It continued to be possible for [the client] to leave the structure he resided in … [and] it was possible for [the client] to enter other structures within the workplace,” it said.

The documents also alleged the workplace did not require its staff member to wear a personal duress alarm.

“The defendant did not ensure that the worker was instructed to call for assistance, retreat and/or lock the residence in which she resided in certain circumstances, such as upon encountering [the client] while alone,” the documents stated.

The matter will be back before the tribunal later this month.