Public transport workers face this every day.
It's never OK
All staff should feel safe and secure at work. Nobody should have to experience aggression, violence, antisocial behaviour or racism.
PTV supports WorkSafe’s industry-wide initiative which reminds customers that abusive and threatening behaviour towards staff is unacceptable.
Although most abuse is verbal and the impact on staff may not be visible, the effects can be negative and lasting.
Please respect our staff as they help you and your loved ones travel to their destinations.
What is work-related violence?
Work-related violence involves incidents in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work.
This definition covers a broad range of actions and behaviours that can create a risk to the health and safety of employees.
Unacceptable behaviour can have a negative impact on the physical and mental wellbeing of workers.
Most of us understand that extreme acts of violence are unacceptable. But not everyone realises there is a scale of violence and aggression. Some examples include:
- aggressive gestures or expressions such as eye rolling and sneering
- verbal abuse such as yelling, swearing and name calling
- intimidating physical behaviour such as standing in a worker's personal space or standing over them
- physical assault such as biting, spitting, scratching, pushing, shoving, tripping, and grabbing
- extreme acts of violence and aggression such as hitting, punching, strangulation, kicking, personal threats, threats with weapons, sexual harassment, and assault
None of these are ok. Being exposed to these incidents repetitively can have a cumulative and significant ongoing effect on wellbeing.
Your actions have impact
If you find yourself getting overwhelmed, try to remove yourself from the situation until you can be in a better frame of mind.
Even acts you may consider 'insignificant' like eye rolling, sneering, talking down to or raising your voice at workers can have a major impact on their mental health. To you, it might be a one-off incident, but they might be treated like this every day.