HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd Lead Traffic Management Operative (LTMO) Sinead Ryan is urging members of the public to #ThinkRespect when they encounter roadworks.
In a harrowing interview with BBC Suffolk, she explains how abuse is an almost nightly occurrence with incidents ranging from swearing and spitting to far more serious cases where she and her colleagues are forced to lock themselves in their vehicles.
HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd a leading supplier of temporary traffic management in the highways industry is supporting the very first Respect our Workforce week taking place 11th – 15th March as part of the Stamp it Out campaign.
The campaign is calling on the whole supply chain to help raise awareness of the challenges facing our workforce as well as the solutions provided to solve them.
According to the campaign, 60% of all roadworkers and other people working on the public highway get abused daily. The good news is, the amount of reporting of incidents of verbal and physical abuse made by public-facing workers on the highway network has increased significantly in the past year due to the increased awareness of the issue. The campaign slogan, “Report it, We’ll sort it” encourages further reporting of abuse.
HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd will work with its supply chain and customers as part of its commitment to support the campaign during Respect our Workforce Week and beyond, in particular by giving its employees like Sinead a voice, highlighting their experiences of abuse.
Respect Our Workforce week, aims to empower the workforce and influence a change of attitudes towards the highways sector’s workers.
The campaign aims to:
- Keep on highlighting the issue of workforce abuse and update the industry on the success of the Stamp it Out campaign
- Provide the industry with several resources to support this
- Work with police forces around the country to work towards delivering more convictions of those who abuse public-facing workers
- Work with the government to raise awareness and to encourage them to understand the extend of and the challenges related to abuse of public-facing workers
- Work with the industry to improve and make communication to the public more consistent
- Work with the press and industry associations to help communicate the messages of the campaign and help get this issue discussed in board rooms across the country
The last 12 months have seen more than 150 companies sign the Stamp it Out commitment, including several local authorities to ensure all public facing workers can be afforded the same protection as highway workers.
Last month saw the first ever Stamp it Out round-table debate attended by the Department for Transport, National Highways and the Chief Inspector leading on Roads Policing and Specialist Operations for Bedfordshire Police, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire Constabularies, who all undertook a commitment to help get more convictions for those who abuse public-facing workers. This, alongside the campaign now working with government, and the resources already available such as the free-to-use Jarvis app and conflict avoidance training, marks an important year for the campaign.
David Shaw, Director of HW Martin (Traffic Management) Ltd, said:
“Respect our Workforce week marks a vital point in the campaign to end roadworker abuse. But there is still a lot of work to do to eradicate it entirely. We are committed to demonstrating to our employees that if they speak up by reporting abuse they experience, we will get it sorted.”