An employer's duty of care to provide a safe workplace extends to protecting employees from the criminal conduct of fellow employees, including conduct occurring outside the workplace and after hours, where the employer knew or ought to have known that the fellow employee was violent and irrational. Failure to dismiss a violent employee after a serious unprovoked assault, in circumstances where the employee continued to display irrational and aggressive behaviour, constitutes a breach of the employer's non-delegable duty of care. The voluntary criminal act of the fellow employee does not constitute a novus actus interveniens where the breach was of a duty to protect against the very risk that eventuated.
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