The Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021, promoted by Daniel Johnson MSP (Labour, Edinburgh Southern), came into force on 24 August 2021.
It provides a specific offence for assaulting, threatening or abusing any retail worker and a harsher sentence if they were enforcing a statutory age restriction, resulting in a fine with penalties escalating to a prison sentence. The legislation was a direct result of Usdaw’s ‘Freedom from Fear’ campaign, working with Scottish politicians, employers and other organisations.
Police recorded retail crime figures in Scotland, released in June, show that:
• Shoplifting increased from 20,557 incidents during the pandemic to 44,730 last year (2024/5), which is a 118% increase and includes a 16% rise on the previous year (2023/4).
• The ‘clear-up’ rate for shoplifting has fallen every year over the past 10 years from 74.6% in 2014/5 to 49% in 2024/5, an overall decrease of over one-third.
• Since the Protection of Workers Act came into effect, there have been 7,861 police recorded incidents of common assault of a retail worker.
Tony Doonan – Usdaw regional secretary for Scotland says: “Scottish retail workers suffer far too many incidents of violence, abuse and threats. No-one should feel afraid to go to work, but far too many retail workers are. Usdaw’s own survey shows that nearly three-quarters 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. Scotland’s protection of retail workers law has made a difference, having been used for nearly 8,000 incidents, but more needs to be done. We are continuing to work with retailers, the Scottish Government and Police Scotland to help ensure that legislation is fully utilised.”
Joanne Thomas – Usdaw general secretary says: “Scottish shop workers deserve far more respect than they receive. The groundbreaking protection of workers legislation that came into force in Scotland was an important step forward and has inspired similar legislation in Westminster for England and Wales, and Stormont for Northern Ireland. We still need to encourage incident reporting and Usdaw is working with employers to make it easier for staff to report attacks and abuse, highlighting the legislation to improve confidence, backed up with training, and promoting the importance of reporting all incidents. Violence and abuse is not an acceptable part of the job and too many shop workers suffer all too often. We still need better co-ordination to ensure that retail employers, police and the courts work together to make stores safer and give staff the support and confidence they need.”
Notes for editors:
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union 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
Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2021/6
Usdaw’s survey of 1,011 Scottish retail staff found that in the last twelve months (national average):
• 70% have experienced verbal abuse (77%).
• 45% were threatened by a customer (53%).
• 8% were assaulted (10%).
Full report: www.usdaw.org.uk/FFFReport2024
Usdaw’s ‘Freedom from Fear’ Campaign seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against workers by engaging the public, shop workers and the Government.
www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Freedom-From-Fear
For Usdaw press releases visit: www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Bluesky @usdawunion.bsky.social and Twitter/X @UsdawUnion