Respect for Shopworkers
Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear Campaign seeks to prevent violence,
threats and abuse against shopworkers. This year we are organising
a Respect for Shopworkers Week to highlight these important issues
and also call for a change in the law to give shopworkers better
protection from assault.
Usdaw understands that the threat of
verbal abuse and physical attack is a year round worry. However
many of our members tell us that the number of abusive incidents
increases dramatically during the festive period. As the shops
become busier, customers become more stressed and sometimes things
can boil over.
That’s why our campaign asks shoppers to: Keep Your Cool
– Respect Shopworkers
We are calling for a change in the law to give shopworkers
better protection from assault. Research published by the British
Retail Consortium indicates that in the last 12 months, incidents
of violence and verbal assault against retail staff has increased
by 83%.
The law currently gives extra protection to emergency workers
who are the victims of physical attack and the alarming increase in
similar crimes against shopworkers has led Usdaw to call for the
introduction of a Protection of Workers Bill, which would give all
public facing workers similar protection. We need to get as many
politicians as possible to join our campaign and to sign up to ‘Back
the Bill’.
We would like you to get involved
this year by helping to deliver a high profile campaign in your
area. You can help by:
For more details on how to get
involved in these activities, please see the campaign
briefing.
We hope that you are able to help. For
further information please do not hesitate to contact Ruth or David
in the Politics Office on 0161 249 2452.