Combating violence against retail workers

Retail union Usdaw’s annual survey of abuse, threats and violence against shopworkers, conducted as part of its ongoing Freedom from Fear campaign, revealed that 4% of UK shopworkers were violently assaulted in 2013. This is the equivalent of 112,000 assaults against staff. The survey also showed that one in 10 shopworkers had experienced at least one physical assault at one point in their working careers.

Usdaw has been campaigning on making an assault on a worker serving the public a separate offence to common assault. In January 2014, , the House of Lords debated an amendment to the government’s new Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, to include a specific offence of assaulting workers serving the public.

Unfortunately, the majority of the House of Lords members did not support the proposed amendment, which was defeated. Usdaw has expressed its disappointment at the outcome and continues its campaign.

The HSE has published an online toolkit to help cut the risk of work-related violence towards shop workers. The guidance tells employers: “Wherever possible, make sure you have at least adequate staffing levels for surveillance and to meet customer demands.” Employers are also told they should “consult the union’s health and safety representatives”. The guidance adds: “Representatives will consult members, which can help you work together to identify issues and create strategies to reduce risks of violence.”

In practice, the downgrading of retail premises as “low risk” workplaces and the removal of the threat of proactive unannounced inspection by an external regulator (see Enforcement — Chapter 2) means that such premises are likely to become less safe and levels of threats of violence and intimidation towards retail workers are likely to continue to increase.

The Community union has called for an urgent review of safety and security in the betting industry following the murder at work on 25 May 2013 of Ladbrokes betting shop manager Andrew Iacovou in south London.

In April 2014, the government changed policy rules on fixed betting terminals to allow customers to set themselves a gambling limit before using the terminals.

Community union’s assistant general secretary John Park said: “Community’s betting shop members have expressed their own concerns about issues around Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, single staffing, problem gambling and some of the abuse at work that our members can experience on a daily basis. Changing the regulations around FOBTs or introducing Think 25 will impact on all these issues. Proper player protection is vital but now the industry needs to put in place the right training, support and staffing levels to ensure that betting shop workers can deal with these changes effectively.”