International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

Yesterday, the 25th of November, the European Transport Workers’ Federation joined the union movement and its affiliated members in drawing world-wide attention on workplace violence against women.

The ETF website posted a statement saying:

Transport is an industry with high incidence of violence. Many women transport workers work in desk-front jobs, being in direct contact with clients and customers, and are often exposed to aggressive behaviour, be it verbal or physical. Companies do too little to tackle third party violence. On contrary, they practice a tacit policy of “client is always right”. Women workers are instructed by their employer to rather diffuse violence than report it back, and complaints are hardly taken into account or dealt with. Transport is also a highly segregated industry, but women do get gradually recruited in male-dominated jobs. Many however leave the industry soon after they get employed. Workplace violence and harassment stand as one of the main reasons for the poor retention of women in transport professions.

The RMT held an event to mark the day with a speaker from Women's Aid, the International Transport Federation and janine Booth of the RMT council of Executives.