Pass new law to protect Scottish transport staff, union urges MSPs

Scotland needs a new law to protect transport workers from assaults, a trade union claims.

RMT union says feedback from Scottish workers shows a stronger deterrent is needed to keep staff safe.

It is calling for a standalone offence to be added to Scots law, similar to that put in place for retail workers.

The Action Against Assaults campaign follows RMT research which found that seven in 10 rail workers had faced violence at work in the previous year.

Legislation on the matter was considered in 2022, and the union wants political parties to make action an election pledge.

Eddie Dempsey, the union’s general secretary, said: “No worker should go to their job fearing they will be assaulted, abused or threatened simply for doing their job. But that is the daily reality for far too many public transport workers. 

“Seventy per cent of rail workers have faced violence in the past year and nearly half of our ferry members say the threat of violence is harming their mental health. That is a scandal which demands action.

 “We welcome the engagement from the Scottish Government to date and the meeting with the cabinet secretary for justice, but warm words must now become law.

 “Retail and emergency service workers rightly have specific legal protection and we want the same for public transport workers too. 

“As we approach the 2026 Scottish Parliament elections, every party must commit to creating a standalone offence of assaulting or abusing a public transport worker.”

RMT members will gather at Holyrood tomorrow to call for change. Justice secretary Angela Constance and representatives of the British Transport Police (BTP), rail and passenger ferry operators, and passenger organisations are also expected to take part in an event in the parliament in the afternoon.

Dempsey said cuts to BTP make further action necessary: “We are talking about public services where the public, travelling passengers, should be safe, and people who look after the public transport network should be safe.”