Sefton Central MP Bill Esterson is backing a new drive to protect shop workers from violence and abuse.
The MP said he was ‘dismayed’ at statistics from the trade union Usdaw that show that 280 retail staff are violently attacked every day at work.
The Government has launched a “call for evidence” to assess the true extent of the problem and whether new laws are needed to address it, and the MP said it was “unacceptable” for retail staff to fear for their safety in their places of work.
Mr Esterson said: “Abuse and violence is unacceptable anywhere, but it is even more so in the workplace. Shop workers are only trying to do their jobs and uphold the law relating to the sale of knives, alcohol and cigarettes. They should never have to put up with abuse or violence. I am dismayed at the figures that show that 280 shop workers are attacked every day and 83% of staff have encountered verbal abuse.”
The MP is supporting the Co-Op’s “Safer Colleagues Safer Communities” campaign to help protect staff from verbal and physical abuse.
The Co-op’s report includes stories of shop workers being physically threatened for asking for ID and refusing sales.
One Co-op worker said: “A bloke came to the till trying to buy fags. I asked him for ID and he showed me an out of date, very damaged passport so I refused the sale. The bloke became aggressive and started calling me a bitch and swearing. I asked for help from the store manager who asked the bloke to leave. He continued being aggressive and swearing, looking for a physical fight with the manager.”
Another staff member reported: “We refused the sale of a can of red bull to a young man as we needed ID. His older brother started shouting abuse and became agitated. We told him that we would not be able to sell it to him either which aggravated him further. I repeatedly asked him to leave but he refused and kept calling me a clown. A young child was starting to become distressed so we again asked him to lower his voice, but he said he didn’t care. He did eventually leave, after taking his phone out and filming me, saying he would put it on social media.”
One colleague said he had to call the police to remove a customer: “A bloke came into the store trying to buy some wine. He was clearly already very drunk
so we refused to sell him any more alcohol. He then became verbally aggressive and refused to leave the store when asked. We had to call the police to remove him in the end.”
The Co-op report went on: “At the Co-op, our concern is not about profit, it’s about people – products can be replaced and stores repaired but violent crime in shops often has a shocking, and lasting, impact on colleagues working at the frontline in our stores. Fortunately, the majority of our 2500+stores haven’t been affected. But too many of our colleagues have suffered, or seen, or heard about violent incidents which often involve knives and nothing is more important than ensuring our colleagues’ safety.”
The Co-op says it has spent £70m on crime prevention measures in the last three years and works with the trade union Usdaw.
The store chain attempts to tackle the root causes of retail crime by supporting community groups and providing employment and career opportunities for young people especially through an apprenticeship programme.
A total of £10m has been invested from the Co-op’s Local Community Fund in more than 4,000 projects supporting young people in communities across the UK including causes directly tackling crime/violence.
Mr Esterson praised the work the Co-op was doing and called on the Government to act swiftly to bring in the necessary measures to protect store staff: “Well done to the Co-op for leading the way on this issue, doing what they can to protect their own staff and working collaborative with both workers and trade unions. The Government must conclude its investigations as quickly as possible and bring forward whatever new laws are necessary to protect shop workers. This also again highlights the loss of front-line police officers cut by the Conservative and Lib Dem Governments since 2010. Some people will act with impunity when they know there will likely be no police presence.”
MPs discussed the prevention of retail crime in a Westminster Hall debate on Thursday (April 11).
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