UNDER-resourced and overworked—Fremantle’s child protection workers are burnt out say union organisers.

At the start of February, the WA child protection department had 6202 cases on its books with 459 handled by Fremantle staff.

Unions say every staff member is working on 15 cases at once—the maximum number allowed.

In WA 111 case workers deal with more than the preferred number of cases. At least 11 staff in the Fremantle office exceed that limit.

Branch assistant secretary Rikki Hendon says child protection workers are struggling following a Barnett government decision to cap the number of new staff, despite the number of children needing support rising.

Several workers approached to comment declined to be quoted, in fear for their jobs. “Our members are constantly telling us they are not able to do the job to the best of their ability because of the high number of cases they have,” Ms Hendon says.

Workers were asked this week to document their workload in a survey as part of Workload Action Week.

DCP director general Terry Murphy says the union is “advocating for a redundant, heavily bureaucratic and unreliable measurement of the workload”.

by CARMELO AMALFI