Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear campaign seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers in the course of their duties. Every minute of every day another shopworker is assaulted, threaten or verbally abused. The campaign brings together police, employers, politicians and shop staff to jointly work towards making the shops and shopping areas safer for staff and customers alike.
Each year we organise Respect For Shopworkers Week and this year it is taking place this week, 5-9 November, and shopworkers up and down the country are organising events to raise awareness with the public about what life is like on the frontline.
This year’s theme highlights the specific problems that can arise around Christmas, when shops are very busy and sometimes tempers can boil over as people get stressed when maybe queues are long or items are out of stock.
Usdaw is also calling on members of parliament to support the protection of workers bill, introduced into the House of Commons by Graeme Morrice MP as a ten-minute rule bill. It is timetabled for a second reading on 1 February 2013. MPs can demonstrate their support by signing EDM 574.
The protection of workers bill aims to reduce incidents of violence, threats and abuse against all workers whose job brings them into face-to-face contact with members of the public. The bill will create a new offence relating to assaults on public facing workers, one that will carry a maximum sentence of 12 months and a £10,000 fine.
Respect for Shopworkers Week is a great opportunity for retail staff to highlight to both colleagues and customers that abuse, threats and violence against people trying to do their job is totally unacceptable and should never be tolerated.
Despite our Freedom From Fear campaign helping to raise awareness of the problem and reducing the number of incidents, it’s a sad fact that too many shopworkers are assaulted, threatened or abused. That’s why our members now think it’s time to give shopworkers extra legal protection. We hope MPs will support them by backing the protection of workers bill.
Our campaign stalls will highlight to shoppers the problems shopworkers can face, particularly in the run-up to Christmas, when customers are stressed, stores are really busy and sometimes tempers get frayed. That’s why we are asking shoppers to show respect for shopworkers and to ‘Keep your cool at Christmas.’
Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear campaign has been running for more than 10 years and working in partnership with employers, government, police and other agencies has made a real difference in helping combat incidents against retail staff.
Despite this, figures published by the British Retail Consortium in January this year revealed that incidents of violence and verbal assault against retail staff had increased by 83 per cent on the previous 12 months. The Retail Trust charity has published research which shows that 60 per cent of those working in retail had reported being treated aggressively, and of those affected, 56 per cent had been the target of aggressive behaviour on more than three occasions in one year. Usdaw’s own figures showed that in 2010, six per cent of shopworkers surveyed had been subjected to violent attack, 37 per cent had been threatened with harm and a massive 70 per cent had suffered verbal abuse.
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John Hannett is general secretary of Usdaw