This week is Usdaw’s Respect for Shopworkers Week. It is designed to raise public awareness of the risks and stress suffered by shopworkers, which can only get worse at busy times like the run-up to Christmas.
As a member of the National Assembly for Wales, I have been working with Usdaw for a number of years to highlight this issue. But I first became aware of it as a young Saturday shopworker in Woolworths when I was physically attacked by an angry shopper. I learned then that such attacks hurt not just the individual but also colleagues who begin to live in fear of similar violence. That’s why another slogan for this week is ‘Freedom from Fear.’
It is a shocking fact that that every minute of every day another shopworker is assaulted, threatened or abused. Usdaw is to be congratulated on bringing this to the fore through regular campaigning and bringing together employers, the police, and local councils to tackle the problem. I am proud as a Labour party member that, according to the British Retail Consortium’s Annual Crime Survey, incidents in shops have fallen to half their 2004 level. That is not an accident – it is the result of consistent Labour investment in policing and close collaborative working with Usdaw to ensure this issue has the priority it deserves. Now, as the union rightly points out, the UK government’s cuts in police funding and the resultant loss of frontline police officers threatens this progress and will put workers at risk.
It is no longer safe to assume that politicians of all parties are willing to do what needs to be done to protect shopworkers. It is no consolation to the shopworker threatened by an underage drinker when they refuse to sell them alcohol to know that the bully will face harsher punishment if caught. What they need is the reassurance that there will be enough police around to prevent the crime from happening in the first place.
Welsh Labour is doing its best with a pledge in our Assembly Manifesto this year to fund an extra 500 Police Community Support Officers. But that does not mean that we can do without the many frontline police officers whose jobs are threatened by UK government cuts. It is not just shopworkers who will be endangered by the cuts. The Welsh Labour government has a strong record on working with NHS unions and managers to enforce a policy of zero tolerance of violence and abuse directed at NHS staff. We will continue to work on this and to support other public service workers who face these dangers, but whatever positive steps we take, by for instance changing attitudes, and improving things like the layout of public buildings, there will always be a need to call on the police as a back-up for staff.
That’s why I and other Welsh Labour politicians agree with Usdaw that it is no longer enough for members of the governing parties at Westminster to pay lip service to the safety of shopworkers and others in the frontline. If you care about the issue you have to say clearly that the cuts in police funding must be stopped. I hope that all Progress readers will back this campaign politically. I also hope that whenever they can safely do so they will speak up when they see a fellow customer abusing or threatening a shopworker – that’s the support I would have liked to have received in Woolworths many years ago.
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Janice Gregory is Labour Welsh assembly member for Ogmore and a member of Usdaw
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Also on ProgressOnline this week in support of Usdaw’s Respect For Shopworkers Week:
Tackling violent retail crime by Ann Coffey MP
Respect For Shopworkers Week by Usdaw general secretary John Hannett