
Incidents of violence and abuse aimed at shop workers rose to 1,300 per day last year, up from 870 the year before, according to new figures from the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
The trade body also disclosed a record amount lost to shoplifting, which totalled £1.8bn. It is believed that these surges have been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis.
The spike comes despite retailers investing large sums to prevent crime and violence in their stores, including spending on CCTV, increased security personnel, and body worn cameras for staff.
The BRC deems policymakers' response to the growing crisis "woefully inadequate", while business leaders have called for laws pertaining to violence against shop workers in England and Wales to follow Scotland’s lead, making it a standalone offence.
According to a BBC report attacks including racial abuse and physical attacks are now up by over 50% inside a year with reporter Lucy Woodman with the report also stating that shops lost £1.8bn in the last year due to shoplifting with shops like Aldi, Boots and Sainsbury's all calling for better protection for their staff.
Supporting the findings from the BRC, Paul Gerrard, Public Affairs Director at the Co-Operative group said to Sky News ,

"It ranges from abuse and ... if you are an ethic minority woman it will include racist or masoginistic abuse .... to threats to people's family and threats of sexual assault; we've had colleagues threatened as they leave the store, we've (also) had colleagues who have been threatened at home."
In a damning inditement as to societal intolerance which now seems to be the accepted norm that abuse is considered part of the job, leading to many deserting public facing roles due to the increased levels of abuse, Kevin Robinson, Programme Director of the Stamp it Out campaign calls the current situation unacceptable;
He said, "In the transportation sector we have seen levels of abuse go from an unacceptable level pre-covid level to something of a modern day societal pandemic with thousands of those working on the public highway experiencing intolerable levels of abuse.

"This now seems to be a blight which is not only borne out across our own sector but also those in public facing roles from shop workers to theatre attendants and is something which we, as UK PLC must challenge both this government and future ones to takes steps to eradicate.
"Only by presenting a united front can we do this and I look forward to engaging with both the British Retail Consortium and other like minded organisations to formulate a strategy where we can better protect those we put to work in serving the public."
コメント