Harm prevention charity TrackSAFE says more than 51,000 rail employees across Australia and New Zealand got involved in the official Rail R U OK?Day last week.
The awareness-raising event, a joint effort of TrackSAFE and R U OK?, was first held in 2015, with around 6,500 rail employees taking part.
R U OK? chief executive officer Katherine Newton said the significant growth of the event in its first five years made it a fantastic example of an entire industry getting behind the R U OK? movement.
“We know that trusting your gut instinct and starting a genuine conversation with a workmate who doesn’t seem themselves can be life-changing,” Newton said.
“With participation in Rail R U OK? Day having grown by almost 700 per cent since the inaugural event in 2015, rail employees from across Australia and New Zealand are transforming their workplaces into strong and resilient environments every day of the year.”
In the eight-week lead up to this year’s Rail R U OK?Day, TrackSAFE and R U OK? sent ‘Quentin’, an interactive digital question mark on a trip all around Australia and New Zealand. Quentin issues educational and informative challenges to encourage conversations between workmates, and completed its cross-country trek at Sydney Trains on Rail R U OK?Day.
TrackSAFE Foundation chairman Bob Herbert – also the chair of the Australasian Railway Association – said the Rail R U OK? initiative was helping foster genuine support in workplaces across the industry.
“We’re so thrilled to have such a huge number of participants involved in this year’s Rail R U OK?Day,” Herbert said.
“Due to the nature of roles in the industry, some workers could potentially be exposed to traumatic incidents. And these incidents can have lasting effects. Not only this, we’re all exposed to life’s ups and downs so we want to empower rail employees to deal with confronting challenges that might be thrown their way.”
Herbert said in recent years he’d heard plenty of stories of rail employees following the R U OK? advice and, noticing someone near them struggling, starting a conversation.
“We place so much importance on this major initiative for this very reason and we’re so proud to see Rail R U OK?Day keep on growing year on year,” he said.