{"id":5251,"date":"2015-08-13T16:16:35","date_gmt":"2015-08-13T15:16:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5251"},"modified":"2015-08-14T13:17:33","modified_gmt":"2015-08-14T12:17:33","slug":"dangers-for-lone-wardens","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5251","title":{"rendered":"Dangers for lone wardens"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To some the term city wardens might conjure up images of eager \u00e2\u20ac\u0098jobsworths\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 doling out as many parking tickets as they can. But for wardens in Aberdeen it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about so much more than just parking.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey walk about 12 miles each day, they assist the public whenever they can, they build relationships with young people in the local housing schemes, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re the eyes and ears of the police and the local council \u00e2\u20ac\u201c they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re a central part of maintaining community safety,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite officer Tommy Campbell noted.<\/p>\n

 
\nBut their role is not always one that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appreciated. In fact, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re often the targets of verbal and physical abuse.<\/p>\n

 
\nBeing clipped by a moving car or having a firework set off in your direction for simply doing your job may not be \u00e2\u20ac\u0098all in a day\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 for most of us, but for Aberdeen city wardens, the hazards come with the territory.<\/p>\n

 
\nA recent Freedom of Information request<\/a> reveals a catalogue of abuse that Aberdeen city wardens have endured over the past three years, with nearly 100 reports of assault, ranging from swearing to being physically attacked.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Shocking<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nAs shocking as the list of assaults may seem, Campbell pointed out that the reports were only the tip of the iceberg.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the freedom of information request is only what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s being recorded,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bMany city wardens won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t log on smaller incidents, because the more incidents you record, the worse it looks.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nTo keep city wardens safe, it has long been a policy that they work in pairs. But in 2010, management proposed that the wardens begin working alone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c some of them were asked to work as late as 3 am without a partner.<\/p>\n

 
\nUnite challenged the proposals and won the dispute, after which city wardens could only work alone during the day in the city centre, and would only do so voluntarily.<\/p>\n

 
\nFive years on, management has again proposed that city wardens work alone, igniting a fresh dispute.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not going to back down on this one,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Campbell said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe latest reports are shocking enough, but if city wardens begin working alone it will only get worse.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAre we going to wait until we get a phone call saying one of our colleagues has been stabbed and left for dead while they were on their own?<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a co-warden with you, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got a witness,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd the chances of someone being abusive to two people are a lot less than the chances of being abusive to one.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Impossible pressure<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nAttacks on the streets form only part of the harrowing story of a day-in-the-life of an Aberdeen city warden. Behind closed doors, city wardens must also contend with impossible pressure from management.<\/p>\n

 
\nIn a separate ongoing dispute, the handheld technology wardens use to issue parking tickets has been turned against them \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been discovered that management has allegedly used the devices to spy on wardens as well.<\/p>\n

 
\nLast year, two wardens were suspended after their reported location while on duty failed to match their position recorded on their handheld device.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt never occurred to city wardens that their bosses might be spying on them electronically, Campbell explained, until the evidence began to stack up, with management knowing very precise locations of each warden\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s whereabouts.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was a blatant breach of the Data Protection Act,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 
\nIt was later discovered that city wardens were also being allegedly monitored via their handheld technology during each and every break they took, including using the toilet. One warden claimed that he had been reprimanded by management for taking too many breaks, despite the fact that he had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and had to use the toilet frequently.<\/p>\n

 
\nAlthough the wardens were later reinstated and breaks are reportedly no longer recorded, Campbell argues that there has not yet been a satisfactory investigation into the extent to which bosses have been electronically monitoring the wardens.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThere\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a whole situation brewing at the moment of disrespect, bullying and victimisation against wardens by management,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something that we will continue to challenge.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nStay tuned on UNITElive as these disputes develop.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To some the term city wardens might conjure up images of eager \u00e2\u20ac\u0098jobsworths\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 doling out as many parking tickets as they can. But for wardens in Aberdeen it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about so much more than just parking.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey walk about 12 miles each day, they assist the public whenever they can, they build relationships with young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[104,90],"wps_subtitle":"Abuse, pressure, being spied on \u00e2\u20ac\u201c this job is no picnic ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5251"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5253,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5251\/revisions\/5253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}