Calls for new laws to protect retail staff as abuse doubles during pandemic
Shop workers union USDAW launch a new petition today to help protect front-line staff.
Northern Ireland retail workers have seen a dramatic increase in the amount of physical and verbal abuse they are being subjected to during the pandemic, with some employees being coughed or spat at by customers.
That’s according to the Union USDAW who is claiming incidents of violence and verbal abuse has doubled during the coronavirus pandemic.
Shocking figures released from the Union showed one retailer reported 990 incidents the first week lockdown restrictions came into force.
The Union is claiming the mandatory wearing of facemasks and coverings have contributed to the spike in incidents.
To address the issue today it has launched a House of Commons petition calling on the government to implement new legislation.
Doug Russell is a health and safety officer at USDAW, he said the Union has been concerned about the increasing levels of violence shopworkers have been subjected to for some time, but during the Coronavirus pandemic it has escalated substantially.
Mr Russell said If the campaign is successful, it would send a clear message that it is a serious offence to assault a shop worker during their employment and if anybody does so, they will face severe penalties, he said:
“We’ve been concerned about the increasing levels of violence and abuse shopworkers have been facing over the last couple of years, but the reason we are launching the petition at this stage is because we’ve been shocked to see that during the pandemic, since the lockdown started, levels of violence and abuse in this country have doubled.
“To put that in context, last year we estimated that the average shop worker would be assaulted or abused once every fortnight and in the period since lockdown that has increased to once every week.
“We interviewed 5,000 shop workers mid March to mid April and of that 5,000 there were nearly 200 physical assaults and 1,400 incidents of serious verbal abuse and threats as well.
“On top of that we’ve still got the traditional problems of shop lifters and of having to refuse sales of age restricted products which are flash points for abuse as well.
“Trying to persuade people to keep their distance physically in the shops since face coverings were introduced, we’ve seen a further increase in incidents around asking people to wear masks when they come into shops.
“Assaults take the form of being spat at, having things thrown at you, weapons being used against you, verbal abuse, racial abuse, all sorts of other unpleasant threats against you and your family.
“They’re very often triggered since the lockdown by factors associated with the social distancing policies.
Mary works in a shop in Banbridge and is a USDAW steward. She said during the pandemic staff have been subject to an array of abuse.
She told Downtown Radio and Cool FM that her colleagues have been spat on and coughed at, with people refusing to wear mask or social distance, she said:
“Abuse is not part of the job, but yet staff were verbally abused.
“Some staff were serving customers at check outs and when they asked them to stand back behind the lines they coughed right into their face.
“Some people wouldn’t sanitize their hands or social distance when they were asked.”
She said the verbal abuse colleagues receive from customers was not acceptable and explained that workers have been tirelessly working to keep shelves stocked curing the crisis, she added:
“Staff felt overworked and unappreciated to say the least during this pandemic.
“In some other stores staff were physically abused as well as verbally.
“I think the government needs to work with unions to help protect staff, so they feel safe in the workplace. The PSNI also need to take abuse towards retail staff more seriously.”
She added: “At present the demand for items has peaked and is now on the downward spiral, but staff in some stores no longer feel safe in the workplace and are worried they may contract the virus and bring it home to their loved ones.
“Abuse is not part of the job and retail staff deserve the respect and appreciation of customers and this should be acknowledged as they are key workers and often overlooked.
“Abuse is not part of the job and retail staff deserve the respect and appreciation of customers and this should be acknowledged as they are key workers and often overlooked.
“Face masks are available to all staff and customers should they not have one. Yet customers are still coming into the store and won’t wear face masks.
“Although face coverings are mandatory in Northern Ireland in shops it’s lucky, we don’t have to enforce face coverings because this could cause more issues for staff.”