Latest news with #ZeroTolerance
Yahoo
08-07-2025
- Yahoo
Almost 40% of female Scottish survey respondents report inappropriate touching
Almost 40% of Scottish respondents to a survey on workplace sexual harassment have reported inappropriate touching. The survey, run by trade union Unite, polled more than 6,000 women across the UK – 1,143 of whom were in Scotland. Of those north of the border, 37.5% reported unwanted touching at work, while just under 10% said they had been sexually assaulted and 4.6% said they had been a victim of sexual coercion. Unite's general secretary Sharon Graham said the findings – part of the union's Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment campaign – were 'damning'. 'Nobody should suffer sexual harassment in the workplace,' she said. 'Unite is committed to taking a zero-tolerance approach and we will put every Scottish based employer turning a blind eye on notice. 'We will fight every step of the way to stamp out workplace harassment once and for all. 'Every worker deserves a safe working environment and should feel able to report harassment.' Elsewhere in the survey, more than half said they had been told sexually offensive jokes, while 45.6% experienced unwanted flirting or sexual remarks – and 13.6% said they had been shown pornography by a colleague. Despite 45% of women who were harassed saying it had happened more than twice and 38.8% saying it had happened more than once, almost three quarters said they had not reported the incidents. The figures come despite the Worker Protection Act coming into force last year, imposing a duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment. The union's equalities officer in Scotland Lorna Glen said the legislation 'has not gone far enough' to protect women. 'Employers are not taking their obligations seriously despite the fact it is the law,' she said. 'This is creating a culture where sexual harassment is going unreported, while those who do take the issues forward are left feeling disbelieved, forced to work with abusers and even losing their roles.' A spokeswoman for the UK Government said: 'Sexual harassment is completely unacceptable, it has no place in our society, and we expect any employer to take a zero-tolerance approach wherever it is found. 'Our Employment Rights Bill will strengthen protections for workers, requiring employers to take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees, including by third parties.' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner announced this week the Government would also change the law to ban employers from using non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) to silence victims of workplace harassment, saying it had 'heard the calls from victims'.
The Independent
08-07-2025
- The Independent
Almost 40% of female Scottish survey respondents report inappropriate touching
Almost 40% of Scottish respondents to a survey on workplace sexual harassment have reported inappropriate touching. The survey, run by trade union Unite, polled more than 6,000 women across the UK – 1,143 of whom were in Scotland. Of those north of the border, 37.5% reported unwanted touching at work, while just under 10% said they had been sexually assaulted and 4.6% said they had been a victim of sexual coercion. Unite's general secretary Sharon Graham said the findings – part of the union's Zero Tolerance to Sexual Harassment campaign – were 'damning'. 'Nobody should suffer sexual harassment in the workplace,' she said. 'Unite is committed to taking a zero-tolerance approach and we will put every Scottish based employer turning a blind eye on notice. 'We will fight every step of the way to stamp out workplace harassment once and for all. 'Every worker deserves a safe working environment and should feel able to report harassment.' Elsewhere in the survey, more than half said they had been told sexually offensive jokes, while 45.6% experienced unwanted flirting or sexual remarks – and 13.6% said they had been shown pornography by a colleague. Despite 45% of women who were harassed saying it had happened more than twice and 38.8% saying it had happened more than once, almost three quarters said they had not reported the incidents. The figures come despite the Worker Protection Act coming into force last year, imposing a duty on employers to prevent sexual harassment. The union's equalities officer in Scotland Lorna Glen said the legislation 'has not gone far enough' to protect women. ' Employers are not taking their obligations seriously despite the fact it is the law,' she said. 'This is creating a culture where sexual harassment is going unreported, while those who do take the issues forward are left feeling disbelieved, forced to work with abusers and even losing their roles.'
TimesLIVE
05-07-2025
- TimesLIVE
Five dead including 2 policemen after taxi plunges down 50m embankment
Garrith Jamieson of ALS Paramedics said responders made their way down the embankment to the taxi and found five people had sustained major injuries and were declared dead at the scene. He said they set up a triage station and treated 13 other passengers who sustained various injuries ranging from moderate to critical. In the interim rescue teams made up of Durban Metro Police search and rescue, Ethekweni fire department and Mobiclaw members set up a roping system to bring the injured up to awaiting ambulances. 'After three hours all of the injured were rescued and transported to various Durban hospitals for the further care that they required. The scene then turned into a recovery operation.' Duma said the accident happened shortly after the launch of the Durban July and Winter Holiday Road Safety Campaign. 'I have mandated the RTI team to sustain the 'No Nonsense, Zero Tolerance, and Alufakwa Campaign. We remain worried about reports that show that most road accidents happen in winter and at night.' The Road Traffic Management Corporation published the following national fatalities for the previous years: June 2021 — 902 road fatalities. June 2022 — 873 road fatalities. June 2023 — 833 road fatalities. June 2024 -923 road fatalities. TimesLIVE
The Citizen
05-07-2025
- The Citizen
Watch: 5 dead, 13 injured in N3 crash near Marianhill in KZN
Watch: 5 dead, 13 injured in N3 crash near Marianhill in KZN Five people, including two police officers, died and 13 others were injured – three critically – when a minibus taxi veered off the N3 and rolled down a steep embankment near the Marianhill Toll Plaza in KZN late yesterday afternoon. The Witness reports that the crash occurred just before the Shongweni off-ramp at around 17:30. ALS Paramedics and Medical Services confirmed that emergency personnel were on the scene at the time. Video footage shared by ALS Paramedics and Medical Services showed medics working on the steep slope where the taxi landed. According to the KZN Department of Transport, the taxi, carrying 17 passengers, was travelling to Lxopo when the driver allegedly lost control while trying to avoid a reckless Polo driver. The vehicle plunged about 50m down the embankment. Truck drivers who witnessed the crash reported the Polo's erratic driving to nearby Road Traffic Inspectorate (RTI) officials, who were in the area following a multidisciplinary roadblock earlier in the day. KZN MEC for Transport and Human Settlements, Siboniso Duma, confirmed the fatalities and said efforts were underway to trace the families of the deceased. 'We express our deepest condolences to the families of the victims. According to our dedicated team from the Road Traffic Inspectorate, the taxi veered off the road and rolled 50m down the embankment,' said Duma. Three passengers are in serious condition, and nine others sustained minor injuries. All were transported to R.K. Khan Hospital. 'We salute emergency rescue personnel who are working professionally to remove the bodies of the deceased,' Duma added. Duma raised concerns about the spike in winter road fatalities. Citing Road Traffic Management Corporation figures, he noted that over 900 people died in June alone. 'I have mandated the RTI team to sustain the 'No Nonsense, Zero Tolerance, and Alufakwa Campaign',' he said. Breaking news at your fingertips… Follow Caxton Network News on Facebook and join our WhatsApp channel. Nuus wat saakmaak. Volg Caxton Netwerk-nuus op Facebook en sluit aan by ons WhatsApp-kanaal. Read original story on At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
Metro
29-06-2025
- Metro
'VR showed me the reality of being sexually harassed on a train'
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video The man from across the train aisle won't stop staring at me. Nervously, I look down at my phone and message my mates on our WhatsApp group chat: 'What should I do?' 'You should move,' replies my friend, Faye. But the guy follows me, his gaze never lowering even after I ask him point-blank why he's staring at me. In response, all he does is smirk and shift silently in his seat. That's when I take off my virtual reality (VR) headset, and I'm pulled back to the concourse of London King's Cross train station. I feel frazzled and nervous, as if I can still feel the man's eyes digging into me. I've just taken part in a VR experience organised by the Railway Delivery Group for the membership body's Zero Tolerance campaign. Sexual harassment is something that, as a man, I've never experienced firsthand, but I know all too many women who have. And it's exactly why I was invited to take part in the VR campaign, which aims to show people like me who may not have experienced or know what sexual harassment is, exactly what it feels like. When I put my headset on, I was shown three scenarios which, to at least a third of women according to police figures, may feel all too familiar. The first, called 'intrusive staring', puts you in the shoes of a woman, while the other two allow you to see the world as another commuter watching sexual harassment play out. The second scenario is entitled 'persistent questions' and after putting my headset back on, in front of me is a bench on a station platform. A woman is sitting on it, scrolling through her phone while a leather jacket-clad man with long hair sits next to her. Then the questions begin: What is she watching on her phone? Where is she going? What brand is her dress? The interrogation goes on and on. The woman, visibly unsettled, offers one-word replies to the man, but this does little to sway him. My mind was full of questions, too. When will he stop? Will he keep grilling her even after they both hop on the train? Can I do anything to help? In the final video – 'catcalling' – I'm sitting at a train table. A woman reading in front of me takes a deep breath as three men sit at the opposite table. 'It doesn't cost anything to smile, love,' one of them jeers. 'Legs are out – fire – she's ready to go,' the other says as the pair laugh. The woman is silent. It's a hard watch. But that's the point: this is what all too many women hear while walking on the street or heading to work on the train. Many women riding trains in Britain have stories of being leered at or harassed, having little choice but to keep their eyes down and guard up. To travel without a fuss, some try their best to ignore the man rubbing his groin by them or throw on an extra layer while travelling, just in case. In London alone, a majority of women (55%) and one in five men (21%) have been victims of unwanted sexual behaviour on public transport, according to a YouGov poll. Harriet, a London barrister, also tries the VR experience. As she takes her goggles off, she tells Metro that what she saw was nothing new. 'I relate to it. Sometimes I think it's ignorance; that maybe they're being nice,' the Earl's Court local explains. 'I get a lot of looks, and I respond and say, 'Hello', and I go back to what I was doing.' 'But there is a difference between saying 'Hello' and being friendly and making someone uncomfortable.' Despite sexual harassment on public transport being on the rise, it is often ignored by bystanders, Catherine Lyver, head of marketing at the Rail Delivery Group, tells Metro. She's seen travellers being hounded in front of witnesses, and says the catcalling scenario was actually inspired by an incident that happened to her colleague. However, the clip that 'resonates' most with Catherine is the commuter facing persistent questioning. 'I have two stepdaughters who travel by train, particularly at night, so, if they were in that situation, I'd really welcome another fellow passenger intervening,' she says. Currently, however, a third of adults (35%) do not consider relentless questioning to be a form of sexual harassment – 28% feel the same about catcalling, while a fifth don't believe intrusive staring falls under that umbrella either. This is why the Railway Delivery Group looked to VR technology for their campaign, to help people understand what sexual harassment is. Make a distraction Bystanders can help cool down an incident by asking the victim or the attacker a question, such as 'What's the next stop?', or 'Do you have the time?' Make a note If you see sexual harassment happening, documenting and reporting it can help build a profile of the perpetrator and help TfL and the police stop it from happening again. Make a note of the time, the station and what the person looked like. Make sure they are okay Check in with them and ask, 'Are you okay?', or let them know that 'What happened isn't okay.' Offering to help the person targeted can help them feel less isolated and more confident in reporting it. Passengers who see something that makes them feel uncomfortable can report it to British Transport Police by texting 61016. In an emergency, always call 999. 'VR gives us the ability to show people how uncomfortable and disturbing some of these scenarios are,' Catherine explains. 'Sexual harassment is a societal issue and it happens in all public places – including on the railway… People might accept it, 'oh, that's just how things are', so we want to change that.' One way to do this, she adds, is to encourage passengers to intervene when they see inappropriate behaviour, if it's safe to do so, and report it. According to the Railway Delivery Group, 85% of women would feel relieved if someone intervened while they were experiencing sexual harassment. And that opportunity arises in all three VR scenarios. A pop-up asks me if I want to stop this happening – so I press 'yes', of course – and I'm shown a small action a bystander can do to prevent further escalation. This can include asking to swap seats, distracting the attacker with a question or, as was the case with the catcalling scene, if it's one of your friends harassing someone, telling them to stop. One man, a London professional who wished to remain anonymous, tells Metro that the VR experience was eye-opening for him. A self-described 'generic tall white man', he says: 'I think it's really important to learn about what makes other people uncomfortable, especially as, quite often, as a man, you've not been in that position yourself. More Trending 'It's easy for men not to understand how frightening or threatening it is. So the video helps with that by putting you in that person's shoes, you see it through their eyes. 'By seeing that from a different perspective, it helps us understand we all need to act and help out as bystanders when we can.' Harriet agrees. 'I think it's important that men, women – everybody – be shown it,' she adds. 'We all need to know when someone is uncomfortable and what we can do to help.' Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@ For more stories like this, check our news page. MORE: Man fighting for life after car smashes into Piccadilly Circus fountain MORE: I spent 96 hours in 'little London', where life is easier MORE: Zara Aleena's family to retrace her final steps at vigil on third anniversary of her murder
