UNISON Scotland wants to end violent
attacks on public service workers

UNISON Scotland has supported Hugh Henry, Labour MSP for Paisley South, in bringing forward the Protection of Workers (Scotland) Bill. This will make it an offence for anyone to assault a public service worker carrying out their job or because of the job they do.

You can help by urging your MSPs (including your regional list MSPs) to support the Bill
* Send emails
* Send postcards

Campaign to end violence against workers
UNISON Scotland has always been at the forefront of the campaign against violence on workers.

We were instrumental in pursuing legislation through the Scottish Parliament to protect Emergency Workers. The Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act, 2006 made it a specific offence to attack or hinder an emergency worker in performance of their duties. UNISON argued that the Act should not just cover the traditional “blue light” services of police, fire-fighters and ambulance personnel and Parliament extended the Act to cover all workers in acute hospitals. To date over 800 successful prosecutions have been brought under that Act.

However, this still leaves many thousands of staff who are not protected, such as social workers, parking attendants, environmental workers, classroom assistants and many more. UNISON’s 2010 Violence at Work survey found over 28,000 incidents where staff in the public sector were violently assaulted or threatened at their work during the past year.

UNISON Scotland is unhappy that the Economy, Energy and Tourism Committee has recommended the Bill be rejected at the Stage 1 debate in the Scottish Parliament. The committee is doing this on the grounds that the status quo is adequate. If the Bill is rejected at Stage 1 it will fall. We are campaigning to persuade MSPs to support the Bill and allow it to go through to its second stage.

UNISON Scotland is very pleased to support Hugh Henry MSP with this bill and would urge all Members of the Scottish Parliament to vote for it to continue to the next stage when it is debated on Wed 22 Dec 2010.

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