Usdaw congratulates Manchester councils on awards

Shopworkers’ union, Usdaw, is congratulating Greater Manchester Authorities on winning two awards for the prevention of violence to retail staff.

The HELA (HSE Local Authority Liaison body) Award for Innovation and the People’s Award were for a project that was first developed by Bury and Salford councils in conjunction with Usdaw and Greater Manchester Police.

The joint working led to a 75% reduction in armed robberies in retail and licensed premises in Bury and a 49% reduction in Salford. It is now being rolled out across the other Greater Manchester authorities and other local authorities are now interested.

The project included guidance for retailers (which was largely based on Usdaw’s Freedom from Fear1 campaign materials), training for local authority environmental health officers on crime reduction and joint working and information sharing between local authorities and Greater Manchester Police.

The awards were presented at a joint conference between the HSE and local authorities at Manchester Hilton this week. The conference was timely, taking place during Usdaw’s Respect for Shopworkers’ Week.

John Hannett, Usdaw General Secretary, said:

“Congratulations to the Greater Manchester Authorities on winning these awards for the work they have done to prevent violence to retail staff and significantly to reduce robberies from stores.

“The idea of local authority health and safety inspectors working with the local police force was one of the main recommendations in our Freedom from Fear campaign and we were involved from the outset in the development of the project. It is good to see it working and to see its value being recognised by HELA and the HSE.”

Notes to Editors:

• Usdaw’s Freedom from Fear campaign aims to prevent violence, threats and abuse against shopworkers. The campaign’s theme for 2008 is ‘Keep your Cool at Christmas’. Respect for Shopworkers Week is running from 3-7 November.
• Contacts for newsdesks: Usdaw’s Media Officer, Cherry Hamilton, can be contacted on 0161 249 2469 or e-mail cherry.hamilton@usdaw.org.uk
• Usdaw (the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK’s fourth biggest trade union, with over 368,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.
• More information and news releases are available at our online Newsroom.
• Subscribe/unsubscribe to Usdaw news releases via our online e-news service at: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/site/email.html

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