The Flemish public transport company De Lijn has proposed a set of measures following a violent assault on a group of ticket inspectors in Antwerp over the weekend.
The assault happened during a check near the Berchem train station. Four men were taken off a bus as three of them did not have valid tickets, and two of them became aggressive while their identities were being checked. A third man joined in on the assault, as an inspector was beaten and pushed to the ground.
Rudy Mous, a trade union representative for Synova, formerly ACLVB, said there had also been an attempted strangling.
The four men were arrested and taken to a nearby police station for questioning.
On Monday, De Lijn hosted an emergency meeting with representatives of multiple unions. After the meeting, the Christian union ACV/CSC told VRT NWS that it received several proposals to improve the safety of De Lijn employees.
"We feel that respect for people in public roles is waning," trade union representative Jo Van der Herten of ACV Public Services – Transport told The Brussels Times. "Whether we are talking about bus drivers, ticket inspectors, police officers, social services staff or firefighters. We sometimes think there is a pre- and post-Covid era. We sometimes get the impression that attitudes have changed significantly since then. But I’m no statistician."
As potential solutions for the safety concerns of De Lijn employees, ACV/CSC has pushed for inspectors to be given bodycams and for the size of teams conducting the inspections to be increased.
Flemish Minister of Public Transport Annick De Ridder (N-VA) hopes that inspectors and drivers can be equipped with bodycams at the start of next year.
"Minister De Ridder has largely confined herself to condemning the aggression, which in itself is a good thing," Van der Herten said. "In our view, she should take a more proactive approach and provide De Lijn with the necessary resources to carry out its monitoring duties effectively."
He stressed that De Lijn is currently expected to meet "an unachievable target" by the end of the year, "whilst there are hardly any additional staff or resources to support this."
Ticket inspectors in Antwerp refused to check tickets of passengers in and around Antwerp on Monday in solidarity with their injured colleague.
"The trade unions support this symbolic action, which does not generate any revenue but ensures that ticket inspectors are still available to drivers in the event of incidents on vehicles or at pre-metro stations, or should assistance be required in the event of an accident," Van der Herten concluded.
