Headlines, stats and why this matters
Recent headlines, from violent incidents in shopping centres to assaults during home care visits, have thrust lone worker safety into the spotlight. Organisations across health, community services, retail and public-facing roles are asking the same question: how many lone workers are attacked every day? The short answer: there’s no neat, single national daily tally. However pieces of official data make the scale and trend unmistakable, and the human cost is significant.
The reality: lone workers face higher risks
By definition, lone workers operate without immediate support. That includes nurses and allied health professionals visiting clients at home, community support staff, retail assistants working late shifts, delivery drivers, field technicians and many volunteers. Isolation increases vulnerability: there’s no colleague nearby to deter aggression, call for help, or provide first aid. As a result, lone workers experience higher rates of both verbal abuse and physical assault than many office-based roles.
What the data shows (and how we estimate a daily figure)
Several reputable sources show violence against workers is rising:
- Safe Work Australia publishes national data on work-related violence and assault claims. Recent reporting has highlighted a marked increase in serious claims related to assault and exposure to violence.
- Industry reports (for example, retail crime analyses) show tens of thousands of retail incidents involving threats or violence each year. Auror’s retail crime reporting, quoted by industry bodies, indicates thousands of retail events involving threats and violence annually.
- International benchmarks also demonstrate the scale: UK studies have estimated around 150 attacks on lone workers per day, providing a cautionary comparison.
Because there is no official Australian “attacks-per-day” statistic published nationally, we can create a conservative, transparent estimate based on workers’ compensation claim data. For example, a Safe Work Australia summary covering several recent years reports tens of thousands of assault-related claims across multi-year periods. Dividing those claim totals by the number of years and then by 365 gives a baseline number of recorded, compensable assault incidents per day, but this is almost certainly an undercount because:
- Many verbal threats and assaults are not recorded as compensation claims.
- Some sectors underreport incidents due to stigma, workload or belief nothing will change.
- Data on near-misses and non-physical threats is usually not captured in claims.
A realistic interpretation: based on the official claim totals reported by Safe Work Australia over multi-year windows, a conservative estimate suggests dozens of recorded assault-related incidents affect workers every day in Australia, and the true number of aggressive incidents (including unreported ones) is almost certainly much higher.
(Methodology note: the estimate uses published Safe Work Australia claim totals as a starting point and divides by time. It is a conservative baseline, not a definitive daily count.)
The human impact: beyond the numbers
Assaults and threats have compounding effects:
- Stress and anxiety: frontline staff often report fear and hypervigilance after incidents.
- Absenteeism and presenteeism: injured or traumatised workers take time off, or remain at work but underperform.
- Staff turnover: morale falls and retention becomes harder and costlier.
- Service disruption: vacancies and recruitment gaps reduce service quality for the public.
Prevention: practical steps that work
Reducing lone worker attacks requires a layered approach:
1. Risk assessments and policies
Identify who is at risk, where, and when. Update lone worker policies to reflect seasonal spikes (e.g., holiday retail surges) and new work patterns.
2. Training and de-escalation
Provide regular, scenario-based training on de-escalation, situational awareness, and how to use safety tools. Role-play and refresher sessions help embed practical skills.
3. Technology and devices
Personal safety solutions, from dedicated lone worker devices to mobile lone worker applications, are essential. Key features that reduce response times and improve outcomes include:
- SOS / panic buttons for instant alerts,
- Man-down/fall detection to automatically raise alarms if a worker becomes incapacitated,
- GPS location to pinpoint workers quickly,
- Audio check-ins (Yellow Alert) to leave context and expected return times, helping the monitoring centre act decisively when a check-out is missed.
4. Monitoring and response
A trained 24/7 Alarm Receiving Centre (ARC) turns lone worker alerts into action. Quick verification and escalation to emergency services materially improve survival and recovery outcomes.
5. Culture and reporting
Encourage reporting by removing blame and ensuring incidents lead to tangible changes. Confidential reporting channels and regular pulse surveys help leaders spot trends early.
Conclusion: the number is too high. And it’s preventable
We may not have a single, definitive “attacks per day” number for Australia, but official claim data and industry reports confirm a worrying upward trend in violence against frontline and lone workers. The human, operational and financial costs are real – and avoidable.
Actionable prevention, combining policy, training, technology and fast monitoring, dramatically reduces risk. For employers and managers, the message is clear: don’t wait for the next incident to act. Assess the risks, equip your people, and build a response system that ensures help is only ever one button press away.
Sources & further reading
- Safe Work Australia, Workplace and work-related violence and aggression in Australia (Aug 2024, PDF): https://data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2024-08/Work-related-violence-and-aggression_Report_August2024.pdf
- Safe Work Australia, report landing page and interactive data: https://data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/report/work-related-violence-aggression-australia
- Safe Work Australia, workers’ compensation / National Dataset for Compensation-based Statistics: https://data.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/about-our-datasets/workers-compensation-data
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, Personal Safety, Australia (PSS) latest release:
https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/personal-safety-australia/latest-release - Auror, Australian retailers record huge spike in armed and violent retail crime:
https://www.auror.co/media-center/australian-retailers-record-huge-spike-in-armed-and-violent-retail-crime - RetailBiz coverage: Auror report: Retail crimes surge 66 per cent in Australia in 2024: https://www.retailbiz.com.au/offline-retailing/auror-report-retail-crimes-in-australia-surge-66-per-cent-in-2024/
- ABS, PSS supporting release: Physical violence, 2021–22: https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/crime-and-justice/physical-violence/latest-release
