Frustrated shoppers and criminals continue to have a heavy impact on retail workers – an Usdaw survey finds

Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “No-one should feel afraid to go to work, but our evidence shows that nearly four in five of our members working in retail are being abused, threatened and assaulted for simply doing their job and serving the community. They provide an essential service and deserve our respect and the protection of the law. The two top issues that trigger incidents are customer frustration and theft from shops. 

“Particularly worrying is the rise of customer frustration as a trigger of incidents. Self-service checkouts, lack of stock on the shelves and low staffing levels have all been identified as issues by our members that can lead to customers taking out their frustrations with staff. We have long campaigned with the general public asking them to ‘keep their cool’ and respect retail workers. We will be taking our survey findings to retail employers as we continue to make the case for safe staffing levels and reminding them that retail workers are the face of the business and they should be valued, supported and treated with decency.

“Theft from shops and armed robbery were triggers for over two-thirds of incidents. Our members tell me that they are often faced with hardened career criminals and we know that retail workers are much more likely to be abused by those who are stealing to sell goods on. While there has been a small improvement in recorded shoplifting statistics, more needs to be done.

“So, we welcome the Crime and Policing Bill, which includes a much-needed protection of shop workers’ law; ending the indefensible £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters and Respect Orders for offenders. Scotland already has a protection of retail workers law and the Northern Ireland Executive has agreed to introduce a similar measure. After many years of campaigning alongside retail employers, it really now feels like governments are listening and taking action to give all retail workers across the UK the protections and respect they deserve.

Helen Dickinson OBE, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said: “Retail violence has become endemic. Those facing these confrontations are ordinary, hardworking retail colleagues - teenagers in their first job, carers seeking part-time work, parents working around childcare. It must stop, and we must double down on fighting this this wave of crime. The forthcoming Crime and Policing Bill will play an important role in protecting retail workers. But it is vital that these protections are extended to everyone working in customer facing roles, including delivery drivers.”

Voices from the frontline: These are some of the comments retail workers shared when responding to Usdaw’s survey:

• “Drunk exposed his genitalia whilst I was outside on my break. Daily, gangs of thieves shouting swinging bags with stolen goods in them.”
• “Work in a petrol station. A ‘customer’ wishing cancer on me to people shouting at me for going a 1p over when filling up. Apparently, that’s my fault.”
• “We have lots of self-service checkouts and the customers hate them, so we as staff get a lot of verbal abusive daily. Homophobic verbal abuse.”
• “Threats after Think 25 policy refusal, physical abuse from a intoxicated man as in store pharmacy was shut, general drunk verbal assault. Clock thrown at me.”
• “Several team members sexually assaulted, including myself. We had a customer repeatedly come in and grope staff from behind. Trolley rammed into my ankle.”
• “Racial hatred in the extreme. Store not having enough staff at this time and I was doing too many jobs at the same time. Refused alcohol and was spat at.”