The TTC’s largest union says the transit authority is putting the safety of its employees at risk after a subway operator was assaulted Friday evening.

Kevin Morton, secretary-treasurer of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, said a woman was working as a guard on the Bloor-Danforth line on St. Patrick’s Day when she was approached by a man who cursed the TTC before punching her in the face at Lansdowne Station.

Morton said the woman, who was working as a guard at the time of the alleged assault, sustained broken teeth.

A TTC spokesperson said a transit enforcement officer went to the scene at Dundas West Station. Police were also called to Kipling Station around 10:50 p.m. They said the suspect had already fled on foot and they had no additional details about him.

Morton said since the TTC implemented policy on Feb. 13 that requires subway guards to work from the sixth car — instead of the fifth, where the enclosed cab is at the window located closest to a majority of stops — the operators are being put at more risk.

“This is a direct result of their decision to not allow us to guard from the fifth cab,” Morton said

In the sixth car, there is a partition separating the operators from the riders, whereas in the fifth car, the operators are enclosed in a cab.

Stuart Green, a spokesperson for TTC, said having guards operating in the last car on Line 2 “brings consistency of operations with the trains on Line 1.”

“During the past summer, when we had issues with hot cars on Line 2, many operators chose to perform guard duties in the cooled last car with no safety concerns or issues,” Green said.

Morton dismissed the argument about air conditioning, saying that in a survey conducted by the union, 263 of 287 operators wanted to keep guarding from the cab in the fifth car.

“The TTC continually shows by their actions that they don’t take the safety of their employees as a first priority. They are looking for comfort of the public over safety of employees,” he said. “It’s always an afterthought.”

In October, the TTC said it was going ahead with plans to eliminate guards on its subway trains, despite claims from the union that the decision would compromise passenger safety.

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“Operator safety is one of the reasons we are moving toward the one-person train operation (OPTO) model as part of our system modernization efforts,” said Green. “By eliminating the guard position, we can significantly reduce health and safety incidents for operators.”

Greed said in 2015 there were 258 incidents related to guard duties, including assaults and accidents where the guard was struck by debris or other objects while the window was open.