Public-sector attacks are on the rise in Scotland

Council staff and health workers in Scotland are at increased risk of physical violence, according to official statistics published last month by public services union UNISON.

The figures, obtained from Scotland’s Local Authorities and Health Boards, reveal that violent attacks rose by over 2,000 to more than 25,000 over the last year. They were released just a month after the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported a 50% increase in violence against shop workers (see last month’s Workplace Report).

“Employers are still not taking the threat of violence to their staff seriously,” said UNISON Scotland organiser Dave Watson. “All the positive advertising campaigns in the world cannot have the impact they should unless employers encourage reporting, and collect and monitor information on violent incidents. We highlighted this problem last year, but if anything it seems to have got worse.”

The union has also uncovered a number of failures by employers to protect their staff against the risk of violence. At Edinburgh Royal Infirmary, for example, a contractor did not bother to tell staff that panic alarms were not working when they were being repaired, and failed to organise more patrols or issue alternatives such as personal alarms.

UNISON is calling for the Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act – which makes it a criminal offence to deliberately obstruct ambulance workers, lifeboat crews, firefighters and others responding to emergencies – to be applied to other public service workers such as social workers, housing staff, traffic wardens, community safety officers and mental health workers.