Introducing Helen, Jane Jones – Usdaw President said: “We can achieve great things when we join together and campaign for the benefit of all retail workers and the British Retail Consortium has long been an ally in fighting the corner for retail.
 
“The health and safety blueprint jointly created by Usdaw and the BRC, became the standard for safety in retail during the pandemic. The BRC has also supported our Freedom From Fear campaign, and complemented it with their own work and research in this field, including their powerful crime survey.
 
“The BRC has joined Usdaw's calls for an industrial strategy for the retail sector and called on politicians to introduce a specific law to protect retail workers. In short, the BRC has worked with Usdaw on a range of topics where we have a shared agenda. So we’re delighted to welcome Helen here today”.
 
Addressing delegates, Helen Dickinson said: “Retail is a people business and an intrinsic part of the social fabric of our country. The past year has been challenging. Costs for businesses are going up and this is inevitably flowing through to higher prices; because of that inflation the cost of living has been increasing. Customers are badly affected and colleagues of course also feel the effects.
 
“All this comes hot on the heels of the pandemic and that followed big shifts over the previous 10 years or so, as people’s shopping habits changed with the rise of online and mobile shopping. This transformation is at the heart of many of the stresses we see today around retail. In too many cases we’re seeing this hurt high streets and town centres. Derelict shops and no government plan about what to do to revive these places. The nature of retail jobs is changing. I think technology and automation should be an opportunity for us all and part of the answer for our high streets. We must do more to ensure colleagues are getting enough support with retraining and upskilling.
 
“Retail jobs have been getting better paid. Pay increases in retail have been higher than average increases for the economy in recent years, but it is clear the cost-of-living crisis has had a big impact on retail workers, Usdaw’s data re-enforces that. It’s been good to see lots of companies responding with increased hourly rates of pay. It’s been a tough situation, there are signs inflation may ease this later year, but prices yet to peak and will remain high for the near future.
 
“Violence and abuse is far too often part of the job. No one should go to work fearing for their safety. The BRC, Usdaw, our members and others have made progress. Between us we got the law changed, but 850 incidents of violence or abuse each day, our latest figures, is a shocking tally. We must do more.
 
“Poor employee wellbeing costs employers money. £22bn is the estimated cost of staff turnover to UK employers across the economy as a result of poor mental health. The Retail Trust’s latest health of retail report found that 83% of employees have experienced a deterioration in mental health and 54% of managers felt unequipped to deal with their team’s mental health issues.
 
“So we must do more to transform our high streets, along with retraining and upskilling our workforce. We must do more on violence and abuse. Along with wellbeing, mental health and inclusion. Despite the challenging backdrop and despite these issues, I am still proud to work in retail. There are many reasons to be proud. We are making progress on many of these areas and my vision for the future sees a vibrant industry, delivering for customers, colleagues and society more broadly. It needs collective action and a strong response from the Government. We need to see more meaningful business rates reform that ends the high fixed costs of running stores. Otherwise, we’ll just see more stores closing.
 
“We need to see Police and Crime Commissioners prioritise tackling violence and abuse and an improved response to incidents by local police forces and the Government to go further. Yes, we got the Government to amend its Bill last year, creating tougher sentences for assaults on public facing workers. This fell short of what we wanted, a separate offence of assaulting a retail worker, which Usdaw championed and the Labour Party supported in parliament. We must keep fighting for that goal.
 
“I am hugely proud of our industry and positive about the future. I am also very proud of the work the BRC has done with Usdaw and hope this can continue. Sometimes we have different ideas about the best route to secure change, but that is more often the exception, not the rule. We are working to achieve the same outcomes. Advocating for change means all of us pulling together where we can.”
 
Notes for editors:

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is the UK's fifth biggest trade union with over 350,000 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

For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion