Workers in the Manitoba government's Child and Family Services Division say they are overworked, stressed and have at times been assaulted, a union-sponsored survey shows.

The poll was commissioned by the Manitoba Government Employees Union, which represents more than 300 unionized child-welfare workers in the province. A third of them responded to a telephone poll conducted in mid-February.

The biggest concern was excessive workload — identified as a problem by almost half of those polled —  followed by a lack of resources, the union said in a statement Friday.

Three-quarters of those polled said it has become more difficult to meet their responsibilities on the job in recent years.

One in three reported being assaulted, while 92 per cent said they had been threatened. Of those who said they were assaulted, 20 per cent said they required medical attention for injuries they suffered.

The union said it had no information on whether police were called to deal with the reported cases of assault and threats.

More than two-thirds said they had spent their own money to buy things for the children or families they work with.

Union president Peter Olfert said the poll confirms what he'd heard anecdotally.

"There's a huge level of stress in dealing with some of these very volatile issues," he said.

"They're working with huge caseloads. They're working under very changing environments. They don't have the resources they require at the front end, and they have health and safety issues they have to deal with. It's a very difficult and stressful job."

Committed to hire 150

The provincial government keeps promising to lighten the workload by hiring more staff, Olfert said, but that hasn't happened yet.

Provincial officials said they have hired or are in the process of hiring 82 more workers. They've committed to hiring 150 over the next three years.

The negative publicity Child and Family Services workers often receive makes the situation worse, Olfert said.

The union is launching an ad campaign to draw attention to the positive results workers often achieve.

"We want to also highlight some of the successes our members have working in these very difficult circumstances," Olfert said.

Despite problems they've encountered, more than half of the poll's respondents said they liked their jobs.

The survey was conducted for the union by Viewpoints Research Ltd. of Winnipeg.