TRANSPORT workers will mark Workers’ Memorial Day tomorrow with demonstrations against assaults on front-line staff as unions say the situation is “out of control.”

Across the country, RMT members are to call attention to their national campaign to address the rise in assaults and abuse in the transport sector.

The RMT is demanding “safe staffing levels, an end to lone working, proper funding for British Transport Police and an increased presence of officers, legislation to make it a specific offence to assault a transport worker and an end to outsourcing of security and enforcement staff.”

Joining demonstrations in Glasgow, RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said their day was a “major part of our campaign to put pressure on employers and politicians.”

He said that RMT members will ask “the public to support them in this campaign as there is a shared interest to see assaults, abuse and harassment curbed, so we can have a safer environment for travel on public transport.”

The union’s action coincides with the publication of new figures from the TSSA union, revealing the scale of violence experienced by railway workers, with more than half (55 per cent) of workplace representatives saying they had been subjected to violence or abuse.

TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust said: “Let’s be honest; this is getting completely out of control.

“Our members are being punched, spat at and abused just for doing their jobs.

“This isn’t happening in a vacuum. People are under huge pressure, the cost of living is biting, wages are not covering the basics, and access to mental health support has been hollowed out. But transport workers are the ones getting it in the neck and that is not acceptable.”