Transport: physical attacks on workers in the sector are on the rise

Research results presented to CNEL UCBM with the Catholic University of Milan

The results of the research were presented last Wednesday in the Parliament Hall of the National Council for the Economy and Labor (Cnel). "STW - Security of Transport Workers" financed by Inail and created byUniversità Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan. Transport is a working context at risk of episodes of violence as daily activities include direct interaction with users and with a series of potentially risky actions.

Internationally, the European Working Conditions Survey of 2015, reports that 8% of personnel employed in the sector have suffered aggression from third parties in the course of carrying out their work activities, approximately 3% more than the episodes of violence recorded on average in other occupational sectors. In Italy in 2022 in the railway sector alone the Police collected 355 complaints relating to physical assaults against workers, in practice 1 per day or 1 every approximately 10.000 trains that circulated on the railway network. Although the data of the Railway Police show an identification rate of those who commit such attacks is over 80%, there is still a perception of impunity also linked to the current regulations both as regards the prescription and the changes introduced with the Cartabia reform which brought the case of minor injuries (i.e. recoverable up to 40 days) to the party's complaint.

However, the number of physical attacks is not very representative of the phenomenon and only partially coincides with the perception by the workers which, as can be seen from the questionnaires collected during the project. For 77% of the sample, which includes both personnel working in the railway and city public transport sectors, they have been the object or direct witness of episodes of violence over the last 5 years of work. Episodes occurred in 88% of cases inside a moving vehicle, be it train or bus, and only in 12% of cases in stations or platforms and in 30% of cases in the time slot between 16 and 20 pm .

Violence they see in the 66% of cases as a victim a worker and almost always the violence is committed by a man (in 67% of cases), in 26% of cases by a couple and only in 6% of cases by a woman. The aggressors are generally aged between 19 and 30 years (33% of cases) and the nationality is Italian in 26% of cases and foreign in 20%.

Il 66% of the sample believes that violent events have increased after Covid, a figure also confirmed by industry experts, who highlight how after the lockdown the level of anger has increased especially in the younger age groups, reverberating in a series of violent actions including those against workers. All aspects that have a direct impact on the quality of work and amplify the related work-related stress conditions. The discrepancy between objective data from the forces of order and the perception of safety on the part of the workers arises both from the fact that in addition to physical attacks, it is also necessary to consider insults, threats and verbal insults which are generally not the subject of a complaint. But above all by the difficulty of collecting and classifying the episodes of violence. There are no sufficient databases in Italy to extrapolate complete and exhaustive statistics describing the phenomenon.

The research presented therefore wanted to explore the phenomenon to verify its characteristics, the repercussions on personnel and work and propose some guidelines. They have been illustrated and analyzed 19 different solutions ranging from changes to workplaces, such as the introduction of separation barriers, the introduction of procedures for faster dialogue in the event of an incident of violence, to the need for better training of workers especially as regards the defusion techniques considered by all the speakers as one of the fundamental aspects.

However, it turned out that an effective strategy must be developed with a systemic vision, which takes into account the context and which includes both technological, organized and personnel training interventions. This element requires, as has already been done for the health sector, the ability to collect information for one systemic knowledge of the phenomenon, starting from a capillary collection of episodes of violence, which sees the participation of both sector operators and public authorities. Only in this way will it be possible to better direct the interventions by optimizing investments and concretely improving the quality of the work.

From this perspective, addressing this critical issue means not only responding to the needs of workers who have suffered violence, as emerged from the questionnaire, but also dealing with the relational theme of violence, involving the users of the means in forms of collaboration and respect with the staff. Make the approach systematic preventive through careful monitoring of the phenomenon, with the aim of constantly evaluating the evolution to adapt the response policies by the transport companies.