Re: City Rail Security Guards

[craigd@lios.apana.org.au (C. Dewick)]

In <7nt6tj$cjn@ob1.uws.EDU.AU> "Ben Staples" <98711576@student.hawkesbury.uws.edu.au> writes:

>> But we are *not* required to ensure each individual passenger's *personal*
>safety - that's the point I was making.

>If the area the passengers travelled in is deemed a place of work, then
>there may be implications with the NSW OH&S legislation. To the best of my
>knowledge without the legislation in front of me, the employer has a duty of
>care towards all people at a place of work even if they are not employees,
>which could include stopping people being assualted on train carriages.

This is probably correct about the OH&S laws, but that does not mean that
myself and the guard on any train I drive are both *personally* responsible
for the complete *personal* safety of *every* passenger on our train. It's
not possible to provide something like that.

The security personnel, regardless of whether they are contract security, or
police, can't provide that either. It's the old maxim of never being able to
be in all places at once.

The general perception in the non-informed travelling public is that because
I'm a driver, or my work partner is a guard, or there are contract secutiry
guards on the train, it makes us (CityRail staff plus other security people)
personally liable if someone gets physically harmed in some way as a result
of the actions of someone else, whether they be on the train or not. This is
a very flawed view.

My way of thinking about this is that there are 'levels' of safety which can
be acheived cost-effectively, etc. and at some point the balance tips away
from being favourable in terms of how much resource needs to be applied
relevant to a particular outcome.

It's sort of my own way of looking at the issue from a risk-management
perspective.

Total personal protection is never a possible outside, since that requires
infinite resources, and that's probably something that upsets the purists
who frown on even the most minute of incidents that occur in any public
venue.

Regards,

Craig.
-- 
            Craig Ian Dewick            |       Stand clear - jaws closing
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