Threats, abuse and violence against workers is unacceptable.
Our union has a zero tolerance approach to violence against any of our members and workers in general.
In the case of our members we are prepared to take action to pursue those who engage in this vile bullying as we have recently demonstrated. We will pursue culprits through civil and criminal routes and ensure that they are punished.
We will also look at how we can help to protect our members (in one recent case our Benevolent fund purchased a personal alarm for one of our members who had been threatened as well as advising on the pursuit of the culprit legally).
It’s a widespread problem. There were an estimated 688,000 incidents of violence at work in 2019/20. See https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/causinj/violence/index.htm
Pat Harrington, General Secretary of Solidarity, commented: “Many bosses think their duty of care end when the worker steps out of the workplace grounds even when a dispute is work related. We don’t accept that. We believe it includes acts of harassment on journeys to and from work, and when workers are away from the office on work activity.
This should become clearer as the Westminster government’s has announced that it plans to ratify Convention 190 from the International Labour Organization’s (ILO), which says that everyone has a right to work free from violence and harassment. The Treaty will protect all workers but I’m glad to note that it specifically includes gender-based violence and harassment.“
