Respect Week 2009

Usdaw’s latest survey on the abuse faced by shopworkers gave this year’s Respect Week added impetus as reps urged customers to – Keep your Cool – in the run up to Christmas.

One in every ten shopworkers has been physically assaulted at work, according to shocking figures revealed in the latest survey from Usdaw.

The survey also reveals that nearly one in three shopworkers (29 per cent) has experienced verbal abuse in the last month and one in three shopworkers has been threatened in the last year.

This is totally unacceptable said general secretary John Hannett: "Shopworkers are all too often assaulted, threatened and abused in the course of their work. They're in a pressurised environment, particularly in the run-up to Christmas time with increased sales and more stressed-out customers.

"Customers can get very frustrated over long queues or if the item they want is out of stock and they take it out on the shopworker."

During Respect Week, which ran from November 2-7, reps and officials held events in stores right across the UK to take the campaign to the shopping public. Shoppers were asked to pledge to 'Keep your Cool at Christmas'. The campaign also lobbies MPs for more police and PCSOs patrolling the streets and use of monitored CCTV to protect customers and staff.

John Hannett added: "Another flashpoint for abuse is when customers are asked to prove their age. Usdaw members tell me that they've been hit, sworn at and threatened for refusing to serve alcohol and other age restricted products to a customer.

"We want customers to be aware that shopworkers are under a lot of pressure to police the law on age-related sales and can be individually fined if they get it wrong. They are just doing their job so please carry ID when buying age-restricted goods. And even if things don't go as smoothly as you would like, customers should show shopworkers respect and keep their cool at Christmas."

Respect Week forms part of the union's award-winning Freedom From Fear campaign and has proved popular with shoppers, members, reps and politicians. It is also an ideal recruitment tool for activists to connect with shopfloor workers.

"The survey was based on more than 1,800 responses from our members," said deputy General Secretary Paddy Lillis.

"This year's Academies used the questionnaires to great effect and recruited hundreds of new members while promoting Respect Week.

"Our campaign is now in its seventh year and has consistently highlighted that any form of abuse is not part of the job. We have come a long way since 2002 when many shopworkers were willing to accept it as part and parcel of their working life. That's not the case any more."

Reps in action during Respect Week

Activists and officials across the UK teamed up to make this year's Respect Week the best ever.

1. John Hannett launches the 2009 Respect for Shopworkers campaign to MPs at Westminster, highlighting the problems around selling age-restricted goods

2. Cleethorpes Morrisons

3. Loughborough Tesco

4. Cromer Morrisons

5. Dundee Sainsbury's

6. Inverness Tesco

7. Welsh Assembly, Cardiff

8. Burnley Sainsbury's

9. Harwich Morrisons

10. Dorchester Tesco

11. Oxford Co-op

12. Bradley Stoke Tesco

13. Durham Shopping Centre

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© 2003 (USDAW) Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers
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Last Modified: Friday, 11-Dec-2009 00:41:22 EST
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