ZERO TOLERANCE ON VIOLENCE AT WORK

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2020 :: RMTnews 14 In the light of recently released RMT figures revealing that assaults on London Underground staff have risen by almost a quarter over the past three years, with more than 600 attacks last year and with 35 such incidents also involving a knife, it was appropriate that this years very well attended health and safety conference should be focused on work- related violence. This worrying trend was reiterated by senior assistant general secretary Steve Hedley when he said that “no-one goes to work to be assaulted”. He backed this up by reporting that RMT research has identified that 72 per cent of members have witnessed violence in the last year, with 25 per cent of members having been actually assaulted. “Our members are at the frontline and are being assaulted every day. The British Transport Police’s reaction is to try and make our members complicit by implying they have in some way encouraged, or exacerbated, the situation. Indeed, our London Underground members will be balloting on this very issue shortly. “There is clearly an onus on the trade union to do something about this to ensure that management have to take legal action against those that assault our members. “Revenue Protection Officers have experienced a 300 per cent increase in assaults. The message has to be enough is enough, the ultimate protection from the RMT will be that we ballot our members and we will protect everyone,” he said. Speaking on behalf of the National Executive Committee, Paul Howes also spoke out against the scourge of workplace violence and called for a zero- tolerance approach whenever and wherever it reared its ugly head. "We must call loudly for appropriate sanctions against ZERO TOLERANCE ON VIOLENCE AT WORK RMT’s 2020 health and safety conference in Doncaster focused on work- related violence