Recently we have seen reports of a French man on trial for assaulting shopworkers with camembert in Chelsea.
It is easy to understand why this story was reported, journalists must have rubbed their hands in glee when this landed on their desks. However, this case is a serious one. The individual concerned had a history of causing problems, having already been banned from the store. He threw the cheeses at the duty manager before allegedly attacking the security guard.
This case is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the abuse and violence that shopworkers experience. This assault is an example, and not even a particularly extreme one, of a very real problem facing shopworkers every day. Our most recent survey of violence and abuse shows that half of shopworkers have been verbally abused in the last 12 months alone and almost 1 in 10 have been assaulted at work.
The most notable thing about the original case is not that camembert was the weapon of choice, it is that it made it to court. Usdaw firmly believes that too often assaults and abuse of shopworkers are not taken seriously. It is easier to issue fines, prevent underage sales or charge someone with shoplifting than it is to tackle abuse and violence that sadly often form part of those very same incidents.
Critically, this apparent downgrading of incidents undermines faith both in the systems in place in the workplace and in the justice system. Our survey showed that 46 per cent of people who had experienced abuse or violence had never reported it to their managers with many people not sure that their complaints would be treated seriously.
Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear campaign was set up to tackle all of these issues, communicating loud and clear the message that abuse is not part of the job. As part of the campaign we call for shopworkers to be treated with respect, holding an annual Respect for Shopworkers week in the run up to Christmas, and have pushed for assaulting a public facing worker to become a specific offence.
After seeing proposals that would have made this goal a reality defeated by the Conservatives too many times, we were successful in having it adopted as part of the last Labour manifesto. Unfortunately, without a Labour government to implement this proposal, our goal remains unrealised.
Usdaw members need a government sympathetic to their concerns – they need a Labour government. Until then, we will continue to campaign for Freedom From Fear in the workplace and for the respect that shopworkers and other frontline retail workers deserve.
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John Hannett is general secretary of Usdaw. He tweets at @JohnHannett