Law fails women workers

A shocking new report has found sexual harassment is endemic in passenger transport sector. The landmark Unite survey found four in 10 women across the sector, including bus drivers, have suffered work-related sexual assault.

The survey was launched at a packed fringe meeting at this year’s Unite Policy Conference in Brighton, and highlighted how the Worker Protection Act has failed women who are being assaulted at work and feel unable to report incidents.

The union, which has around 6,000 women members in the field, polled them on whether they had experienced sexual harassment while at work, travelling to work or from a colleague including in out of work hours. This was part of a wider survey polling women members in all 19 sectors where Unite has representation.

It shockingly found 40 per cent of women working in the sector, including bus drivers, operatives and taxi drivers had been sexually assaulted at work, making the industry one of the worst affected. Disturbingly 12 per cent had been a victim of sexual coercion – when a person pressures, tricks, threatens, or manipulates someone into engaging in sexual activity without genuine consent – at work.

The survey, part of Unite’s Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment campaign, also found 71 per cent had been the recipient of sexually offensive jokes, 70 per cent had experienced unwanted flirting, gesturing or sexual remarks, 56 per cent had been inappropriately touched and 45 per cent had been shared or shown pornographic images by a manager, colleague or third party such as a passenger.

Out of those who had been sexually harassed at work, in most occasions it was not a one off instance, over half (57 per cent) had it happen more than twice, while almost a third (31 per cent) had experienced it more than once. However more than three quarters (76 per cent) of respondents did not report these incidents, meaning many perpetrators are left free to offend again.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Staff safety should be among the highest priorities for employers in the passenger transport industry, but the results of our survey are damning and show women workers are being failed by bosses.

“Nobody should suffer sexual harassment in the workplace. Unite is committed to taking a zero-tolerance approach and we are putting every employer turning a blind eye on notice.

“We will fight every step of the way to stamp out workplace harassment once and for all. Every worker deserves a safe working environment and should feel able to report harassment.”

Many respondents to the survey working in the sector said they didn’t report harassment they had experienced or witnessed as they were worried they wouldn’t be believed or it would put their job at risk, while others felt it wasn’t taken seriously when they did raise it. Just 20 per cent said the issue was addressed or tackled by management.

One woman working in the industry said: “I didn’t report it due to the position in work the person was in. I felt it would affect my job. I do know I’m not alone.”

Another said: “I’m a bus driver and have been for 25 years, I have had years of sexual harassment too many times, the odd occasions I have reported it, I have been told I’m oversensitive. I deal with the offenders myself nowadays.”

Meanwhile some women said they either had to carry on working with abusers after reporting incidents or were even forced out of their own job roles.

One respondent said: “I was sexually assaulted by a colleague outside of work, the police were involved. All I asked from the company was to be kept out of a particular area that he goes in regularly, but apparently this could not be done. It would not have affected my work in any way whatsoever. So, I have to see the person who assaulted me, because they won’t allow me to go to a different space on these occasions.”

Another said: “I was stalked by a passenger for months, who took pictures of me and hugged me without consent, would always lean into the cab and stroke my arms. It was reported to management numerous times but was told as long as he had a valid ticket to travel there wasn’t anything they could do.”

Unite national officer for passenger transport Wayne King said: “Sadly the survey is a reflection of the treatment women endure in society.

“No woman should go to work and endure the kind of antiquated behaviours evidenced in the survey. We will be doing everything we can as a union, both locally and nationally to bring an end to sexual harassment in the workplace. 

“Every woman working in the passenger sector has a right to be treated with dignity and respect when they’re at work. Unite will do all it can to ensure that happens.”

Last October, The Worker Protection Act 2023 became law. This means employers must take measures to prevent sexual harassment from happening in the workplace and at work events such as conferences.  However, Unite’s research shows this is not being implemented fully and workers are being failed.

Unite’s survey found only 20 per cent of women working in passenger transport felt their employer had done enough to promote a sexual harassment zero-tolerance culture within the workplace following the implementation of this legislation.

Unite has launched a campaign calling for greater protections to end the menace of workplace harassment. Measures Unite is campaigning for include:

·    The introduction of a standalone sexual harassment policy

·    Mandatory training on sexual harassment for all employees and a commitment to recognise union equality representatives with paid time off

·    The deadline for being able to make a claim in an employment tribunal to be extended from three months after the incident occurred to six months as a minimum for lodging a claim

·    The government to put in extra legal protections, for example third party harassment and sexual harassment should be treated by the Health and Safety Executive as a workplace injury.

Unite national women’s officer Alison Spencer-Scragg said: “The Worker Protection Act has not gone far enough in keeping women who work in passenger transport safe from sexual harassment at their workplace.

“Employers are not taking their obligations seriously despite the fact it is the law. This is creating a culture where sexual harassment is going unreported, while those who do take the issues forward are left feeling disbelieved, forced to work with abusers and even losing their roles.

“Unite is calling on the government to take our demands seriously to stamp out sexual harassment in firms and workplaces.”

The conference is running all week. Stay tuned on UniteLive for the latest coverage of policy conference.

By Keith Hatch

Photo by Mark Thomas