Silent Crime: Plans to crackdown on abuse against retail workers will make police 'take notice' of scale of issue

Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) has backed plans recently announced by Home Secretary Yvette Cooper and Prime Minister Keir Starmer to stamp out violence and abuse against shop workers. The Labour leader previously spoke out about the issue, saying: “It is not acceptable and it can’t be acceptable in any circumstances. It is demoralising for the workforce and that’s why I’m pleased we can introduce an offence to deal with it.”

Cooper followed up his words by telling the Labour party conference last week that the government will seek to introduce new powers to tackle specific crimes, such as violence and abuse towards retail employees.

It comes as NationalWorld’s new campaign ‘Silent Crime’ aims to highlight crimes which have gone under-reported and unresolved within communities. To tell us your experience, click here.

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The union has said that Labour’s plans to crack down on violence against shop workers “will make a difference”, adding that if it closely follows the Scottish law introduced in 2021, police will be forced to record incidents and spot the scale of the issue. Usdaw spokesman David Williams said: “In Scotland, one of the requirements is that [police] have to separately record these incidents against shop workers. So for the first time, we can see the scale of that.”

Statistics from the Scottish Government showed that in the year ending September 2022, 3,277 crimes against retail workers were reported under the Protection of Workers Act, just one year after it was introduced.

Mr Williams described the scale of under-reporting incident as “phenomenal”, adding: “The main benefit for our members is if the police have got to record it, they need to take more notice of it.”

Government action welcomed but more action is needed

While the new plans to make abuse against shop workers a standalone offence is welcomed, more will be needed to make employees feel safer at work. Mr Williams said: “We need that to be backed up by greater policing. It's a bit patchy, but there's quite a lot of evidence that we don't get great responses to reports of shoplifting from the police, even when that includes an assault of a shop worker.

“There's got to be more enforcement, but we're also putting out a general message of respect for shop workers, because it isn't just shoplifting. It can come from things like customer frustration - another big issue is verifying age for sale of restricted goods, cigarettes and alcohol.”

Usdaw’s 22-year-long campaign ‘Freedom from Fear’ was introduced in 2002 following a sharp increase in reports of abuse suffered by retail workers. “It's heartbreaking, even what some people might feel is a relatively low level incident,” explained Mr Williams. “You’re sworn at, abused and shouted at.”

“A lot of companies employ mystery shoppers and they can get in trouble with the law or the company through a disciplinary process if they get it wrong. Staff are just doing the job they are required to do.”