All public facing workers should be able to work without fear of violence

Barbara Fulton

All public facing workers should be able to work without fear of violence, said Congress. It agreed overwhelmingly to campaign for the Workers (Aggravated Offences) (Scotland) Bill to give greater legal protection to all front line workers.

"UNISON Scotland welcomed Bill when it was proposed By Hugh Henry MSP, and we are glad to note there is now enough support for the Bill to be introduced into Parliament", said UNISON's Barbara Fulton.

UNISON has been highlighting violence against public sector workers since 2002, when we carried out a survey and in 2003 published a Trauma Report which indicating a high level of violence, with some horrific cases of assault, both physical and sexual, particularly against NHS workers.

"Since then we have been campaigning, against at times considerable opposition, for legislation outlawing attacks on public sector workers", said Barbara. "Our campaign was instrumental in bringing about the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act 2006, which for the first time specifically protected Police, Ambulance Workers and Firefighters, often known as the "Blue Light" services and all those working or assisting workers in hospital Accident and Emergency Units.

"In 2007 the legislation was amended to include some additional NHS staff, mainly in community settings, such as GPs, but UNISON continues to push for a much wider group of workers to be covered by the Act. Social workers, for example particularly in residential care and community settings; other health service staff who work in emergency situations, such as nursing assistants, ancillary staff, professional health staff; traffic wardens; those working in utilities, to give just some examples of those who face the possibility of violence at work".

Since 2006, UNISON has been carrying out annual surveys on all public sector employers where we organise, through the Freedom of Information legislation, asking them for their figures on attacks on their staff.

"Our experiences agreed with another study carried out in local government, which concluded that it was impossible to make an accurate assessment of the level of assaults across Scotland, due to the lack of any coherent approach to the collection and recording of statistics", said Barbara.

"In addition, many employers and indeed staff, appeared to think that assaults to workers looking after children and old people, often with learning disabilities or mental illnesses, were just part of the job and really, to be expected.

"Congress - UNISON doesn't accept that anybody should be assaulted at their work, no matter who is doing the assault and we insist that much can be done through risk assessments and preventative measures to minimize these attacks", added Barbara.

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