Centrelink says more than 8600 reports of customer aggression towards its staff last financial year is an improvement, but its main workplace union says the welfare agency is hiding the extent of the problem.
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The agency's bosses insist the workplace safety situation is improving but the union says plummeting customer service standards are driving high levels of verbal and physical aggression towards frontline Centrelink workers.
The CPSU alleges there is a deliberate drive to normalise threatening or aggressive behaviour in Department of Human Services workplaces so that incidents are not reported and that the "robo-debt" crisis is going to put more workers into the danger-zone.
It points to a survey of its members last year that reported more than 60 per cent of them had been the victims of aggression and says these finding are sharply at odds with the official figures.
The department says its staff are well protected with CCTV, security guards and panic buttons.
Human Services recently announced its intention to splash out again on a private sector player to train its public servants in techniques to deal with threatening behaviour.
But the union says this does nothing to address the underlying cause of customer aggression: Centrelink's dismal customer service performance.
Department of Human Services spokesman Hank Jongen said customer aggression was relatively rare, given the large number of interaction between Centrelink and the public each year.
"We deal with almost all 23 million Australians and each day our staff have hundreds of thousands of contacts with customers," the spokesman said.
"While the vast majority of these interactions are cooperative, friendly and respectful, customer aggression incidents do happen.
"The causes are complex and often involve people who are experiencing difficult circumstances in their lives."
Mr Jongen said the department did everything it could to ensure its workers were kept safe.
"We have a comprehensive program to prevent and equip staff to manage customer aggression," he said.
"This includes staff training, incident management, staff debriefing, service centre security measures, and security assessments.
"Staff and customers are also offered support following an incident.
"All service centres have monitored duress alarm systems and police are alerted when a duress alarm is activated.
"We also have a range of other security measures, such as closed circuit television and security guards, in place which are tailored to suit each individual site."
But CPSU deputy national president Lisa Newman is not convinced and said she and her colleagues believed the real incidence of aggression and violence is much higher than the official version.
"The frustration for our members is that DHS management continues to completely ignore the underlying reason why the number of violent incidents continues to rise" the union official said.
"Last year we surveyed members and 62 per cent of respondents reported that customer violence was increasing which is starkly at odds with reported number of incidents.
"We believe customer violence and aggression is being normalised and under reported.
"Budget cuts have forced the department to cut thousands of permanent jobs and the results have been sadly all too predictable.
"A staggering 36 million calls to DHS went unanswered last year and increasingly staff in face-to-face roles aren't able to provide the services customers rely on and expect and are instead being told to redirect people to highly problematic online alternatives."
