The RMT is warning that violent incidents are increasing on the Southern and Gatwck Express divisions of Govia Thameslink Railway, and has not ruled out staging industrial action in protest.

The union is calling for ‘urgent intervention’ from the operator’s management. It has described incidents every day of assault, threats, spitting, verbal abuse, and intimidation, and it says ‘this rise in violence and aggressive behaviour is putting workers’ physical and mental health at risk, with frontline staff increasingly forced to carry out their duties in fear’.

The RMT wants more staff and security officers at busy locations, a ‘visible and consistent enforcement presence’ and a company-wide safety plan.

General secretary Eddie Dempsey said: ‘The level of violence on GTR’s Southern and Gatwick Express services and stations, has reached a crisis point and is totally unacceptable. Our members are being assaulted, threatened and abused at work and the company is not doing enough to stop it.

‘GTR must take urgent action now to protect staff and passengers or we will have to consider all our options, including industrial action.

‘We will not tolerate a situation where workers are left exposed and unsupported while this behaviour goes unchecked.’

GTR's safety, health and security director Sam Facey said: ‘Last year we launched a £2.5 million anti-social behaviour improvement plan, created following feedback from stakeholders, including the police and some of our staff and trade unions representatives,’ and said that the operator is fully committed to tackling the issue, with more than 1,500 body cameras, which can reduce incidents by almost half and also provide evidence in court.

She continued: ‘We have also doubled the number of high-visibility travel safe officers who work with British Transport Police and our teams of rail enforcement officers. We have also invested heavily in education projects for schools and colleges.

‘But this is bigger than the railway, it is a wider, regional problem of youth violence affecting communities, particularly those on the south coast, which is why the close collaboration of the police, councils and other agencies continues to be so important in tackling this kind of behaviour.’

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