Dignity for Drivers Report Launch

That the Parliament welcomes the publication on World Toilet Day of the report, Dignity for Drivers, by the train drivers union, ASLEF; notes that this new research looks at what it sees as the very serious issue of train drivers having to drive for long periods of time without frequent toilet breaks and access to safe, clean, dignified facilities; understands that over 3,000 train drivers took part in the research, which has produced what it considers to be shocking findings, including drivers being forced, through a lack of facilities and time to use them, to urinate or defecate on the rail track, in train cabs, improvised receptacles such as food containers, bottles, plastic bags and newspapers, or having to change sanitary products in unhygienic situations that lack privacy and dignity, and deliberately dehydrating or not taking prescribed medicines to avoid soiling themselves; is concerned that what it sees as these Dickensian conditions are reportedly endemic across freight and passenger services in every nation of the UK, including Scotland; notes that the serious health, safety and wellbeing issues raised by the report affect not only drivers and other rail workers, but also threaten the health and safety of all who use rail services, including those in the Mid Scotland and Fife region, and further notes the calls for the Scottish Government to work with the UK Government, employers, the regulator, ASLEF and other stakeholders to address the four main demands of the report, which, it understands, are for a maximum period of four hours without access to toilet facilities as standard across the industry, for the provision of safe, clean, accessible and dignified toilet and welfare facilities across the network, that drivers must be able to go to the toilet based on their individual and personal needs without being subjected to management interference, discrimination or disciplinary action, and for all operators to provide free sanitary products in the workplace and for them to be available across the network for drivers who want to use them.