Aggression against transport workers: NSW workers compensation guide

Aggression against transport workers can occur through passenger or road-user threats and physical assault and aggression during fare, access, delay or delivery disputes. The incident history should identify the task, equipment, location and sequence of events rather than relying on the job title alone.

People commonly exposed include bus, taxi, rideshare and truck drivers and rail, station and customer-service staff. Employment records should identify each person's task, employer and position in the work area when the incident occurred.

Medical records after a aggression against transport workers may identify head, facial, neck, shoulder, hand or fracture injury and psychological injury after violence, confinement or repeated threats. Each diagnosis should be linked to the event or exposure and to the worker's actual functional change.

After a aggression against transport workers, immediate reporting and safety records may include vehicle CCTV, dashcam and duress record preservation and route, service, fare, booking or delivery record. These records can establish what was known at the time without requiring the worker to repeatedly recount a traumatic event.

• Radio, call, GPS and control-centre log.
• Police event number, witness and supervisor report.

For a aggression against transport workers, the first evidence to preserve includes cab or station safety design and barrier records and prior incident, route-risk and lone-work reports. It is most useful when dates, people, equipment, duties and later medical histories tell a consistent account.

• Roster, shift and fatigue information.
• Medical and psychological evidence.

Medical and psychological evidence after a aggression against transport workers may include physical injury and specialist records and psychological diagnosis and work-trigger evidence. A diagnosis alone may not answer causation or capacity: the records should explain the work event, symptoms, treatment and practical restrictions.

• Capacity certificate addressing driving, route, passenger contact and shift.
• Medication and licensing considerations recorded by treating practitioners.

After a aggression against transport workers, an insurer may dispute the event is said to be a private road or passenger dispute and recordings are overwritten before preservation. The written decision should be answered with evidence directed to those stated reasons.

Physical injury and specialist records. Psychological diagnosis and work-trigger evidence. If treatment is disputed after a aggression against transport workers, the request should explain the accepted diagnosis, expected functional benefit and reasonable alternatives.

Work capacity after a aggression against transport workers may turn on safe driving, passenger contact, isolation and night shifts and concentration, vigilance, sleep and medication. Proposed duties must be compared with the real task demands and the worker's ability to sustain them for the proposed hours.

A lasting physical injury is assessed under the NSW method for the affected body system only after the condition is sufficiently stable. The event label does not predict a WPI percentage. Primary psychological impairment is assessed separately under the NSW psychiatric impairment method when the condition is permanent and the legal pathway is established. Diagnosis alone does not determine WPI. Any WPI assessment after a aggression against transport workers occurs after stabilisation under the NSW method for the accepted body system; the accident or surgery alone does not determine a percentage.

A primary psychological injury is the psychological condition said to arise directly from workplace events. For claims first notified on or after 1 July 2026, the event must fit a relevant-event category and satisfy the additional connection and causation requirements. A secondary psychological injury arises as a consequence of a physical injury, for example depression associated with pain, surgery or loss of mobility after an assault injury. The 2026 primary-injury reforms do not apply to secondary psychological injuries in the same way. The distinction depends on medical causation and the accepted injury history, not simply on which symptoms were noticed first.

A police, SafeWork, workplace, discrimination, Fair Work or protective-order process may exist alongside workers compensation. Those processes have different purposes and do not decide workers compensation automatically. A civil, victims-support or other claim may require separate advice depending on the person involved and circumstances. It should not be described as part of workers compensation without checking eligibility. These issues are separate from workers compensation and depend on the particular facts.

For a aggression against transport workers, assistance may involve identify the event category, incident date and claim pathway before responding to an insurer and organise incident, safety, medical, psychological and capacity evidence without circulating unnecessary private material. The purpose is to identify the disputed decision and the evidence needed for the next step, not to promise an outcome.