By Rob Macey, Brighton Organiser, GMB Trade Union

Readers will have been shocked to have learnt of the recent spate of attacks on Bus Drivers within Brighton and Hove.

Over the last year more than 20 drivers have been assaulted by members of the public whilst at work, and recent evidence shows that this situation is only getting worse. These attacks have ranged from being punched and kicked to being threatened with knifes, and are on top of the daily verbal abuse that our drivers must endure.

Only this weekend the GMB has been told of three new assaults taking place on buses within Brighton and Hove, the most despicable of which involved a cup of urine being thrown at a driver.

Being assaulted at work is a risk that is faced by all of our public servants, whether it be within the NHS, Police or Brighton Bus Company. We should of course condemn those carrying out the assaults, and both the company and the police should prosecute them with the full force of the law, however we also have to accept the harsh reality that if you are working with members of the public you are at risk of being assaulted.

It’s easy to believe that these incidents such as these don’t take place within Brighton and Hove; however you only need to go to West Street on a Saturday night to see that this isn’t the case. Our members work in West Street on Saturday nights and are as much in the firing line as anyone else.

Because of this there is a legal obligation on the employer to take measures to ensure the safety and wellbeing of their staff. The types of action that can be taken are either deterrent or preventative. Examples of deterrent action are working with the police to ensure that those carrying out the assaults are prosecuted, the installation of CCTV systems to aid in this prosecution, and encouraging the criminal justice system to pass a heavy judgment on those convicted.

These are measures that have been tried and given the huge increases in assaults taking place we can see that they are not working. As such the most important thing that the employer can do is to take measures that prevent the attacks happening in the first place.

In terms of Brighton Bus Company the GMB believes that the best way of doing this is by the installation of protective screens to form a barrier between the driver and the public. This has happened in other cities, and in London you will not find a single bus that does not have a protective screen installed.

The GMB has launched a campaign for all buses within Brighton and Hove to be fitted with these screens but we have been told that this cannot happen on the grounds of cost. In recent interviews the Managing Director of the company has stated that all new buses will have the screens fitted, however he has refused to commit to retro fitting existing vehicles due to cost and a belief that the installation of screens will cause screen glare and rattling.

To take these points in turn no cost to the company is worth the risk of another assault taking place. In terms of the screens causing screen glare we would ask why this would be case when screens on newer buses do not suffer from this problem? With regard to rattles the company should invest in ways of installing the screens so that this does not happen.

If the company continue to maintain that screens cannot be retro fitted to older buses then they should get rid of the older buses and immediately commit to only having a new fleet that has the screens pre-installed. Any failure to do this can only be on the grounds of cost.

It is our belief that each day that the company delays the installation of these screens is another day that one of our members is at risk. So far we have been lucky in that no driver has been killed as a result of an assault, however if action is not taken that day will come.

The GMB will be continuing its campaign on behalf of its members, and we would ask the public to support our campaign by writing to the company and the local paper, the Brighton Argus to encourage them to do the right thing. We have now written to the health and safety executive to ask them to intervene and we will be assisting our members with legal claims against the company for their failure to ensure the safety of their staff.

When travelling on a bus in Brighton we would ask the public to bear in mind the difficulties of the job our members do and to show them some support.