Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “Retail staff deal with hundreds if not thousands of shoppers every day, particularly in the busy run to Christmas, they need to be protected from flu and help ensure they don’t pass on the virus to colleagues and the public. With hospital admissions for flu up by 55% last week and many more falling ill, it is clear there is a tidal wave of the virus ripping through our communities.
“Grocery retail is an essential service that helps keep the nation fed and healthy. As was highlighted in the pandemic, retail workers are key workers and efforts should be made to protect them and help to keep staff in work. Any large increase in sickness absence in the retail food industry could have a severe impact on our communities.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions and the UK's fifth biggest, with around 360,000 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: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion