Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “By the time shopworkers get to ‘Super Saturday’ they will have already been through a very busy run up to Christmas and could be facing the busiest shopping day of the year. Our members tell us that incidents of verbal abuse are much worse in the run up to Christmas, when shops are busy, customers are stressed and things can boil over. That is why we are asking customers to ‘keep your cool’ and respect shopworkers, to make the Christmas shopping experience better for everyone.
“It is shocking that two-thirds of our members working in retail stores are suffering abuse from customers, with far too many experiencing threats and violence. Seven in ten of these incidents were triggered by customers being frustrated with stock shortages, lack of staff or problems with self-service checkouts. All of these problems are largely outside the control of retail staff, but they are bearing the brunt of shoppers’ anger.
“Too many shopworkers do not get a decent break over the Christmas and New Year period. They can arrive home shattered and have to spend time on Christmas Day getting ready for work the next day, which is why 97% want shops to shut on Boxing Day. 98% of our Scottish members want stores to close on New Year’s Day. While Usdaw has successfully secured the closure of large stores on Christmas Day, the rest of the holiday season is pretty much normal trading days for many.
“For those retailers who do open, we have negotiated national agreements for shops to be staffed with genuine volunteers only and our workplace reps are supporting members to help make sure that happens at store level. We also say to customers, if you must shop on Boxing Day or New Year’s Day, please treat the staff with respect and understand they would most likely rather have the time off.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades
www.usdaw.org.uk
Usdaw’s festive campaigns: www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Xmas-isn-t-working and
www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/New-Years-Day-Working
Super Saturday set to be UK’s busiest in-store shopping day of peak trading: https://www.retailgazette.co.uk/blog/2023/10/super-saturday-busiest-peak-trading
Interim results of the Usdaw’s 2023 survey, based on 3,082 responses, show that: 65.44% were verbally abused, 42.74% were threatened. 17.52% shopworkers had been assaulted during their career. 4.81% had been assaulted this year. Of those who were verbally abused, 71.8% said that customer frustration with stock shortages, lack of staff or problems with self-service checkouts was the trigger. The final results of the survey will be published in 2024.
Usdaw’s Freedom from Fear Campaign seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against workers by engaging the public, shopworkers and the Government.
www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Freedom-From-Fear
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter
@UsdawUnion