The Prison Officers Association is taking a motion, amended by NASUWT, to the TUC regarding violence in the workplace.

The rise of serious assaults on prison officers and related grades has increased by 58 per cent over the last five years and by 35 per cent in the last year.

Other assaults on staff have risen sharply. There were 3,637 in 2014, an increase of 28 per cent on 2010.

While there are no simple explanations for the decline in safety, budget cuts must be a significant contributory factor. Tragically this year we also saw the death of custody officer Lorraine Barwell, which is now the subject of a murder inquiry.

The POA will be asking Congress to support and instruct the general council and affiliated unions to mount a joint union campaign for the protection of all workers in the public and private sector in their workplaces.

It should not matter whether the worker is a prison officer, nurse, bus driver, ambulance worker, firefighter, teacher or shop worker.

There should be no acceptance of intimidation, harassment or violence at work. A zero-tolerance attitude must be adopted by all employers.

The prison service uses the words zero-tolerance, but in reality it appears to think that violence comes with the territory and that it is part of the job to be assaulted.

Sadly, some of my members take it for granted that they will be assaulted. No-one goes to work to be assaulted and it is totally unacceptable. The full weight of the law must be on the side of those assaulted.

The Crown Prosecution Service, police, employers and courts need to be educated that each assault on a worker should be prosecuted with no exception.

Recently a prison officer had urine and excrement thrown over them in an assault.

The serving prisoner was dealt with at magistrate’s court and pleaded guilty to the assault and received a conditional discharge.

He must have been laughing all the way back to his cell with a slap on the wrist from a magistrate who is obviously out of touch.

I wonder what the reaction of the magistrate would have been if that had happened to himself, or indeed a family member.

It was a disgraceful assault on an individual who has now got to go through all sorts of tests at the hospital to ensure he hasn’t picked up any contagious diseases, which also affects his family as in some cases there is months to wait for the all-clear.

We have all read of attacks on firefighters, ambulance crews, nurses and doctors in accident and emergency, teachers and other workers serving the public.

Some of the assaults have been horrendous, from stabbings to assaults and threatening behaviour.

Certainly the prison service has seen a marked increase since budget cuts came into play in 2010.

The prison population has increased yet there has been a fall in prison officer related grades of some 28 per cent.

There can be no doubt in my mind that the cuts have played a significant factor in the rise of assaults on prison officers.

Trade unions effectively are the last stand to ensure that workers are treated fairly at work and to redress the wrongs that exist.

The health and safety of workers should never be allowed to be trampled on. Over the years trade unions have fought for rights for workers.

With the onslaught of the Trade Union Bill and all it stands for, there is a danger if we don’t kill this Bill off then workers’ rights, including their safety at work from assaults and their well-being, will be eradicated.

The Tory government knows if it can silence trade unions and their members then it can drive through worse terms and conditions and ultimately diminish safety at work.

That is why the trade union movement must not only support this motion at Congress but make it mean something with a properly funded campaign which highlights the issues of violence in the workplace.

It is also imperative that the Trade Union Bill is defeated. The thresholds for balloting are unfair and will make it practically impossible for unions that have a legitimate trades dispute to get the threshold that they need to take action to protect their members. If this Bill goes through, with all the add-ons of opting into political funds and permitting agency workers to break strikes, then workers may well have to ignore the new laws if indeed they are to continue to protect themselves.

The reality is the trade union laws that exist at present are already restrictive enough.

But the government has the bit between its teeth and the movement must resist it with all its might, otherwise the movement will effectively become a talking shop of lobbyists who just offer their membership servicing for cheap holiday insurance.

Trade unions were born out of resistance and were formed to represent their membership’s interests at work to ensure they had decent hours, decent pensions, decent pay and terms and conditions, along with health and safety at work.

Lots of people have struggled and sacrificed to ensure future generations were cared for at work and in retirement. The trade union movement has an obligation to follow in the footsteps of those before us and fight for our rights.

The POA had its trade union rights stripped from it in 1994. We have continued to fight that issue and no amount of legislation will stop us from doing the right thing so long as our members wish that to occur.

Basic rights at work should mean that workers in the public and private sector are safe and free from violence at work. This is an important motion which the movement needs to support to ensure all our members are working in a safe environment.

The POA will continue to campaign against violence in the workplace, but we believe the campaign will be better with all unions and the TUC campaigning together.

• Steve Gillan is general secretary of the Prison Officers Association.