What exactly is workplace violence? The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) defines it as: “Any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This can include verbal abuse or threats as well as physical attacks.” Not limited to incidents between colleagues or co-workers, it includes attacks against your people by members of the public or other third parties within the context of their job. Nor is it limited to physical confrontation: bullying via email or across social media represents one of the dark sides of new technology.[wlm_nonmember][…]
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Employees in the transport sector are exposed to all the usual workplace violence risks – and more. They range from assaults on bus and train crew by criminals or members of the public to road rage incidents and physical threats against drivers. This latter category can be specifically against the individual, to facilitate hijack, cargo theft or even stowaways. Drivers and crew, whether for passenger carriage or goods transport, need extra risk prevention attention.
Let’s unpack data from across the workplace violence spectrum:
- In 2014/15, 285,000 adults of employment age experienced work-related violence that included threats and physical assault.
- Estimates show that 54% of perpetrators were strangers; in the 46% of cases where the victim knew the perpetrator, the offender was most likely to be a customer or member of the public known through work.
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences (RIDDOR) data shows that in the same period 4,810 employee assaults were logged – or 6.8% of all workplace injuries.
- A Freedom of Information (FOI) request made by the London Assembly in 2014 showed that between 2010-2013, there were 4,967 incidents against Transport for London (TfL) drivers, including 1,800 physical assaults and 64 threats with a weapon.
- The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) estimates road freight crime costs UK plc £250 million annually – including armed robbery and hijack against drivers.
- In light of this overwhelming evidence of workplace violence, how can operators best manage workplace violence risk?
Your duty of care
As an employer you have a duty of care to protect your employees and members of the public using your services – sometimes from other members of the public or third parties. Although workplace violence is the exception rather than the rule, the consequences can be significant: legal bills, compensation, absenteeism, loss of morale, lower productivity, poor employee retention and reputational damage. As an employer, you have legal responsibilities:
- The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974: you must ensure, as far as it is reasonable, the health, safety and welfare at work of all your employees.
- The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999: you must consider employee risk, including violence that is reasonable to foresee, decide on the significance of the risk, decide how to prevent and control it – backed by a management plan. This will serve as your risk assessment and official policy.
- Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations (RIDDOR) 2013: you must already log any death, accidental injury or incident that results in incapacity that lasts for more than seven days with the HSE. These regulations include any act of non-consensual physical violence committed in the workplace.
Mapping employee risk and how you control it should be set down in your workplace violence risk assessment and the subsequent organisational policy it generates.
Third party violence risk
Public-facing employees: as the data shows, PCV drivers and/or crew are at risk of assault and abuse from members of the public.
With bus operators, risk mitigation includes screen protection for drivers, CCTV installed on-board, limits to cash carried, intercom systems and/or panic buttons for crew.
Don’t forget about employees that may be handling public complaints by telephone or email – verbal or written abuse is an occupational hazard.
Night shift: if your organisation runs shifts through the night ensure site entry/exit security is sound; operate CCTV and have clear emergency processes to alert against aggravated burglary.
Co-worker violence risks
Bullying, victimisation and intimidation: set clear parameters of behaviour and make equally clear the disciplinary penalties for breaches. Remember that bullying can be face-to-face, by phone, by text and across social media platforms. It can also manifest itself in abuse of managerial position.
Physical assault and verbal abuse: incidents may not always form a pattern of behaviour so, as with bullying, make clear your codes of conduct and disciplinary penalties to counter isolated incidents when tempers fray.
Reporting: ensure you document and establish an incident handling mechanism that’s either owned by a manager or, if appropriate, your HR department. Your people should know who to go to with neither fear nor favour: a violence-free work culture starts at the top.
Whistleblowing: sometimes incidents or sustained abuse can go unreported for obvious reasons.
Ensure that victims of abuse or those who have witnessed it know whom in a position of responsibility to go to – anonymously if necessary.
Modification: you can also box clever by altering job specifications, teams or lines of reporting to lessen confrontation risks between people with antagonistic relationships.
Communication and review: embed your workplace violence policy within your induction and on-going training programmes and ensure that all your people are crystal clear on your organisation’s stance. Review your processes annually; assess and document performance.
Was it self-defence?
Or a practical joke gone wrong? Having clearly documented and communicated processes is one thing but remember that incidences of workplace violence between co-workers can be very grey areas – so it’s important not to overreact.
Always be forensic and objective in your investigations and do explore mitigating or extenuating circumstances. Otherwise as an employer you may leave yourself open to an unfair dismissal claim.
Thankfully, workplace violence is the exception rather than the rule. It comes in many forms but as available incident data shows, transportation has a unique set of third party violence risks in addition to co-worker risk.
It’s your duty of care to ensure a violence-free workplace by all reasonable means – it’s your insurance broker’s responsibility to provide you with the insurance protection you need.
So focus on building the compliant health and safety at work processes that will help you achieve your objective of protecting your people from the criminal predations of others when they’re at work behind the wheel.[/wlm_ismember]
