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Customers urged to Keep Your Cool
10 October 2009
In the run-up to Christmas members know that incidents of verbal abuse increase dramatically during the festive period. Customers are stressed, stores are really busy and things can boil over. While most shoppers are perfectly law-abiding, some think they can shout and abuse staff for no good reason – Usdaw wants to stop all that.
Since the campaign was launched in 2002 there have been significant breakthroughs in key areas to help prevent violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers, writes general secretary John Hannett.
Overall the campaign has succeeded in raising the profile of the issue and has forced employers, the Government, police and others to take action to tackle this problem.
Most major retailers that we have agreements with have signed up to a Charter of Respect for Shopworkers.
Co-op, Sainsbury's and Tesco now display signs asking customers to respect staff, explaining that abusing the staff is unacceptable. We are working with other companies to do the same.
The Home Office has set up the National Retail Crime Strategy Group on which Usdaw is represented. This gives the union a voice at the heart of government, helping to make policy that will improve our members' lives.
Magistrates' guidance was amended, following Usdaw campaigning, to state that where violence is used in the course of shop theft, it should be treated as aggravation of the offence and dealt with accordingly, possibly with a custodial sentence.
There are other initiatives too but the most important aspect of Freedom From Fear is the involvement of reps and members in this vital campaign.
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