NEW YORK (NYTIMES) - For the many workers who have been doing their jobs from home during the past two years of the pandemic, the biggest concerns about returning to the office are personal safety and exposure to Covid-19, a poll conducted by the Partnership for New York City in conjunction with Morning Consult found.

According to those who commute to work by using the train, commuter rails or bus, 61 per cent of respondents said the biggest issue the city had to address was safety.

The recent increase in crime and assaults on trains, such as the attack of Ms Michelle Go, who was pushed to her death in front of a train, prompted the Partnership for New York City, a business advocacy organisation, to survey employees, Ms Kathryn Wylde, its chief executive, said in an interview last Saturday (March 26).

For months, the organisation had been hearing anecdotal concerns from companies and employees about how conditions in public transit were a deterrence in return-to-office plans, especially the lack of available resources to address mental health issues and the increased number of people who are homeless in the city.

The survey was a chance to "give the employees the opportunity to register their concern" in a more formal way, Ms Wylde explained.

The poll found that "the overwhelming response was business cannot solve this problem", Ms Wylde said. "They can contribute to solving it, but they really have to hold the feet to the fire of the public officials who are driving public policy."

The Partnership for New York City has been in regular communication with the mayor's office about the concerns that employers are voicing, Ms Wylde said. She believes that Mayor Eric Adams' Subway Safety Plan is a good step in addressing some of the concerns of those who were surveyed. The plan will stop those without homes from sheltering in trains, as well as calls for stricter enforcement of transit system rules, more mental-health services and housing options for those being cleared from stations and trains.

The poll was conducted from Feb 17 to March 11 among a sample of 9,386 adults working in private New York City offices, with 80 per cent of them working in Manhattan.

Thirty-six per cent of survey respondents live in Manhattan, 25 per cent in other boroughs, 22 per cent in New Jersey or Connecticut, and 13 per cent in Long Island or the northern suburbs.