Anti-social behaviour, abuse, intimidation and violence are all too common across the public transport network. Passengers and transport workers experience it on a day-to-day basis. SIPTU has long campaigned for the establishment of a dedicated policing service in public transport and arising from recent increased reports we launched our “Respect Transport Workers Campaign” in February.
We surveyed members employed across all transport operators and the responses we received were shocking. More than one in five respondents (21%) stated they experienced anti-social behaviour daily and an additional 30% stated it was a weekly occurrence.
Since the launch of our campaign, we have had extensive media coverage, Union representatives have met with the Minister for Transport, the Minister for State at the Department of Transport, the Oireachtas Joint Transport Committee, senior Gardaí and officials from the Department of Transport. At these various meetings, we highlighted the unacceptable treatment transport workers face and lobbied hard for action on the three aims of the Respect Transport Workers campaign.
The three aims of the campaign are:
- The establishment of a dedicated Transport Policing Unit with powers of arrest, detention and prosecution to operate across all modes of public transport.
- The establishment of the National Transport Advisory Council (including SIPTU representatives) which would make recommendations to the National Transport Authority on public transport issues including safety and security.
- The development of a Public Transport Charter, which will be displayed across the various modes of transport and outline what behaviour is unacceptable and the penalties faced by those that carry out such behaviour.
SIPTU representatives have also attended a meeting of the European Transport Federation (ETF) where we appraised union colleagues from across Europe on our campaign and also submitted a motion to the upcoming International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) World Congress on the problem of anti-social behaviour internationally. We will work closely with both federations going forward on this issue.
SIPTU intends to continue lobbying and campaigning on this critical issue and we ask all transport workers to contribute to our campaign by highlighting this problem, particularly to political candidates in the run-up to the next general election. We also ask transport workers to report any anti-social behaviour to their employer and to SIPTU so that every incident is recorded and together we can make a difference.