One of the provisions of the Employment Rights Bill – which is currently working its way through the parliamentary process – is protecting employees from third-party harassment.
Now some commentators and politicians have sought to argue that third-party harassment could ban discussions in pubs on sensitive subjects for fear of offending bar staff. That’s an over exaggeration designed to undermine a key piece of legislation that will protect employees, including our members working in Lloyds Banking Group.
This legislation is not about pub banter.
One of the issues we deal with daily is members who have been abused by customers. Most of that abuse is verbal but there have been instances of physical abuse. Our members don’t go into work every day of the week to be abused by a small, but increasing, number of customers.
We’ve said before that Lloyds should show some backbone and adopt a zero-tolerance approach to such abuse: it hasn’t done.
Members will be aware that a week ago customer was stabbed to death inside the St Peter’s Street branch.
The two individuals involved in that murder have been arrested by the police.
The tragic incident in Derby is on a completely different scale to what we are discussing in this Newsletter but no member of staff should have to witness such violence at their place of work. What our survey results show is that the verbal and physical abuse of Lloyds staff is on the increase and it must be stopped before it goes any further.
We sent a survey to members recently asking about their experiences of abusive customers. The results are as follows:
77.82% of respondents said that had experienced abuse from customers in the last 12 months.
94.87% said that abuse was ‘verbal’ but 5.14% said that it was both ‘physical’ and ‘verbal’.
In respect of verbal abuse, we asked members what that involved and the responses were as follows:
Being shouted or screamed at: 90.52%
Being called names: 34.54%
Racial abuse: 11.06%
Sexual abuse/harassment: 3.16%
Being sworn at: 76.07%
Threatened with violence: 16.70%
In respect of physical abuse, we asked the same question, and the responses were as follows:
Being spat at or on: 45%
Being attacked which could include being pulled, dragged, punched, hit, slapped and punched: 55%
77.30% of respondents reported that verbal and physical abuse to their line manager.
However, 54.77% of members said the customer’s account wasn’t closed. That is completely unacceptable.
There should be a zero-tolerance approach to verbal and physical abuse, and it should be one strike and your account is closed.
We will be issuing a further Newsletter with examples of the kinds of behaviours front-line staff are expected to put up with daily.
We will review the final legislation and guidance once it’s published and will not hesitate to use it to protect our members in Lloyds. Equally, we’ll be writing to MPs to make sure they understand the importance of this legislation for frontline staff working in banking.
Members with any questions should contact the Union’s Advice Team on 01234 262868 (Option 1).
MEMBERS SHOULD PASS THIS NEWSLETTER ON TO THEIR COLLEAGUES IN HALIFAX & LLOYDS SO THEY TOO CAN BENEFIT FROM THE ONLY INDEPENDENT TRADE UNION IN LLOYDS BANKING GROUP.