SCOTLAND
A union is demanding changes in the law after figures revealed there have been more than 37,000 attacks against Scottish public sector workers so far this year.
A Unison Scotland survey used Freedom of Information powers to get employers to reveal the true number of workplace assaults.
The figures showed there had been 37,622 reported incidents across Local Government, the National Health Service, education, police, fire and rescue and other services.
Chair of Unison’s Health and Safety Committee in Scotland, Scott Donohoe said these were only the incidents that were reported.
“We believe there is still a culture of non-reporting across sectors, which means the figures will be even higher,” Mr Donohoe said.
“Workplace violence is ‘not part of the job’ and never has been.”
He noted that the 2005 Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act made it an offence to assault or impede firefighters, ambulance and hospital staff and said he would like this extended to classrooms and Local Councils.
“All workers who deal with the public are at risk of violent assault, as our survey results show,” Mr Donohoe said.
He said the narrow focus of the Act provided protection to groups of predominantly male workers.
“Meanwhile, large and mainly female occupational groupings such as nurses, care workers and classroom assistants lack comparable protection,” Mr Donohoe said.
He said the massive scale of violence against PS workers, including those in the community and voluntary sectors, had been at least partially revealed over the past decade.
“We need to have accurate and reliable systems for reporting all violence against public sector workers in order to achieve truly effective measures to overcome and eliminate the problem,” Mr Donohoe said.
Edinburgh, 1 November 2019
