Transdev bus driver awarded compensation after incident at Sydney’s Macarthur train station

A bus driver has been awarded compensation for ‘psychological injury’ while on the job after a train station attendant refused to let him use the toilet. 

The driver, who was contracted by Transdev, was left ‘extremely stressed and upset’ after the incident at Campbelltown, in Sydney’s west, in May 2020. 

According to details published by the Personal Injury Commission of NSW, the driver had arrived Macarthur Station needing to do ‘one and two’ but found the toilets locked. 

A Sydney bus driver has been awarded compensation for ‘psychological injury’ while on the job after a train station attendant refused to let him use the toilet at Macarthur Train Station last year (pictured)

A train attendant at the platform refused to unlock the bathroom because the toilets had not been cleaned yet. 

After pleading with the attendant several times the bus driver turned to go downstairs when he suddenly felt a ‘bowel movement’. 

The driver asked him to ‘open the f***ing door’ and threatened to relieve himself in front of the locked toilets as he pretended to unzip his pants.  

The attendant ‘pushed him on his back’ as the driver went to turn away before eventually unlocking the toilet doors, according to the text of the decision. 

The driver filed a work injury report describing it as ‘assault’ and later attended a police station but did not press charges against the man. 

In an email provided to the commission, the train attendant claimed the driver was ‘yelling and swearing at him and carrying on’. 

He said the driver had threatened to urinate on the station, to which the attendant responded: ‘You will not. You are on camera.’ 

The attendant admitted he pushed him, but ‘not hard’, after the driver headed towards a concourse wall ‘to pee’.

He said the driver ‘squared up to throw punches’ and continued to swear and make threatening gestures even after the toilet doors were unlocked. 

The driver filed a work injury report describing it as ‘assault’ and later attended a police station but did not press charges against the man (pictured, stock photo)

The commission heard the incident following disciplinary meetings at work had exacerbated the driver’s anxiety and depression. 

In a claim lodged with Transdev’s insurer GIO, the driver sought $900 for appointments with a psychologist and $3,240 for future sessions. 

The claim was initially disputed by GIO and brought before the commission, however, it ruled in the driver’s favour this month. 

‘I am satisfied that the applicant sustained a psychological injury on May 2, 2021,’ senior member Kerry Haddock said.

‘That injury was an aggravation of a disease, to which his employment was the main contributing factor.’ 

The driver’s supervisor described him as an ‘excellent worker’, the commission heard. 

Ms Haddock said she accepted the proposed treatment as ‘appropriate’.

‘(His psychologist) has calculated the potential cost of further treatment as $1,835, while the application claims $3,240. Neither is an excessive amount,’ she said. 

‘The treatment has the potential to be effective and allow the applicant to sustain his employment.’

Ms Haddock said it was ‘impossible to know’ how the driver will respond to treatment but agreed to make a general order for the payment of his medical expenses.