Violent public endangering lone workers

A female member of staff working alone at an off-licence in Cambridge was threatened by sword-wielding youths, who trapped her in the back room while they stole money, beer and cigarettes earlier this week.

This is only one of a number of attacks in the past month, and raises again the duty that companies have to protect their lone workers.

Earlier this month, Scottish Water workers were attacked with machetes while responding to an out of hours call, and a before that, a social worker in Preston was stabbed to death during a home visit. Workplace Law Network also reported on the push by GMB, the union for licensed minicab drivers, for CCTV cameras to be installed in all minicabs following a spate of serious attacks on drivers.  

British Crime Surveys (BCS) have shown that 22% of workers who had contact with the public thought it likely that they would be threatened in the next year, and 10% thought it likely that they would be assaulted.  

But at the same time, 67% said they had not received any form of training in how to deal with violent or threatening behaviour. The 2004/05 BCS indicated that there were approximately 339,000 threats of violence and 317,000 physical assaults on British workers.

According to information produced by the HSE, as well as the impacts on employees of physical harm, stress and psychological problems that these attacks can bring, consequences for organisations include: 

• staff retention and recruitment problems;
• increases in sick leave from stress-related health problems or a physical injury;
• low productivity from high levels of sick leave and staff refusal to do certain jobs; and
• high insurance premiums and compensation claims.

Talking about measures companies are required to take to protect their employees, a HSE spokesperson says:

“It all depends on employers carrying out risk assessments; they have a duty to do all that is reasonably practicable to protect their workers. They need to identify the dangers and take measures that are appropriate, whether that means providing protective equipment, CCTV, or mobile phones for employees to keep in contact.”

More information and guidance on carrying out risk assessments for lone workers can be found in Workplace Law’s Loneworking 2008: Special Report available here »