TL;DR – Kudos to everyone who’s pushing hard for this to go through!
Looks like our public transport workers will get to have their very own shields very soon!
In a Facebook post, Labour MP Melvin Yong, who is also the Executive-Secretary of the National Transport Workers’ Union (NTWU) shared that the bus engineers from SMRT have come up with a new plastic shield for the bus captain’s cabin.
According to the Labour MP, the prototype is designed in-house by SMRT after taking into account the feedback from union leaders and bus captains. The new plastic shield now has an anti-glare film to help minimise glare, which was an issue with the previous designs.
Made of polycarbonate, the new plastic shield is designed with an increased thickness of 12mm and a metal reinforcing arm. This new shield can now “provide a better protection for the bus captain from someone throwing a punch,” said Melvin Yong.
Keeping our fingers (and toes) crossed that this initiative can be rolled out smoothly for a public run next week! Because like everyone else, our bus captains deserve to go to work with peace of mind too.