Customers urged to show respect to retail workers

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A survey by the shopworkers’ union Usdaw found that almost half of retail workers had been threatened by a customer in the past year. 

More than two-thirds of the 2,000 workers surveyed said they had suffered verbal abuse, while around one in eight had been assaulted. 

The union said there had been a “worrying” increase in cases of assault.

One worker told the survey they had asked a shoplifter to leave the store and was then threatened with being stabbed multiple times. 

Another said impatient customers were often verbally aggressive because queues were long or after being refused age-restricted products because they had no ID.

A third said they were spat and sworn at because a customer was refused alcohol.

Usdaw said it was joining the Retail Trust, the Association of Convenience Stores and the National Business Crime Centre to promote annual Respect Week, which began today.

General secretary Joanne Thomas said: “This year’s annual survey interim results show a welcome, but slight, downturn in the level of abuse and threats retail workers are experiencing while doing their jobs, which reflects the recent small downturn in shop theft.

“However, it is very worrying that violent incidents are increasing. It appears that the number of incidents is in decline, but the severity is increasing and some violent shop theft is now being classified as robbery.

“The government has invested in policing, with specific projects to tackle retail crime, and that appears to be having an effect.”

Retail Trust chief executive Chris Brook-Carter said: “Our country’s shop workers have had enough of being shouted at, threatened, and treated with contempt. 

“We’re hearing from people who are frightened to come into work because they don’t know what they’ll face that day, and from others who have been pushed to breaking point by repeated abuse.

“Retail is one of the few places where millions of strangers still interact face-to-face and there has been a disturbing shift over the last few years where behaviour that would once have been considered completely unacceptable is increasingly being seen as part of the job.”

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