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A “TOXIC cocktail” of staff and service cuts was blamed for attacks on public service workers after it was revealed yesterday that the number of violent incidents reported has doubled in the last eight years.
Unison Scottish organiser Dave Watson told his union’s health and safety conference at Stirling University it was “entirely unacceptable” for staff who serve the public to be assaulted for simply doing their job.
Mr Watson said: “The biggest increase in violent incidents is happening in those services that have suffered staffing cuts. Workers are stretched too thinly, dealing with service users who are coping with cuts in the services they rely on.
“This is a toxic cocktail that is putting hard-pressed workers at greater risk of violent assault.”
Unison’s annual survey of Scottish public-sector employers showed 37,052 reported attacks last year, up 3,363 on the previous year and almost double the 20,000 in 2006, when the union began its survey.
The union says council workers, who have suffered four in every five job cuts in Scotland, also faced a shocking year-on-year increase in violent incidents with 15,729 reported last year, a rise of 850.
Chairman of Unison Scotland’s health and safety committee Scott Donohoe slammed both Holyrood and Westminster governments for failing to tackle the issue.
“Too few violent incidents result in criminal action,” he said.
There were 330 convictions last year under what he called the “limited scope” of the Emergency Workers Act.
He criticised the Scottish government for opposing Labour MSP Hugh Henry’s Protection of Workers Bill in 2010 and said the UK government has undermined protection for workers with cuts to the criminal injury compensation scheme.
Mr Donohoe added: “To seriously tackle violence against staff we need proper monitoring, backed up by effective workplace measures to minimise the risks.
“We also need better legal protection for workers in the civil and criminal courts.”
The shocking statistics came as a memorial to people killed and injured at work was unveiled by Glasgow City Council and the Scottish TUC at the People’s Palace on Glasgow Green.
The design of the sculpture in black and purple, colours associated with International Workers Memorial Day on April 28, was chosen from ideas suggested by pupils in Glasgow schools.
