Minister launches ‘days of action’ campaign to combat violence against shopworkers

Crime and policing minister Kit Malthouse has launched a series of “days of action” to combat violence against shop workers, stated recent reports.

The campaign was launched over the weekend at the Bullring in Birmingham. It was organised by the Police National Business Crime Centre (NBCC) and National Association of Business Crime Partnerships (NABCP).

The Birmingham Bullring event will be followed by several regional days of action, details of which are still to be announced.

The campaign has come about because research has revealed that 40,000 shopworkers have experienced violence from customers in the past year and 89% have been verbally abused.

“What would possess anyone to threaten or assault shopworkers is beyond me. It’s truly awful and we should not stand for it,” Malthouse said at the event.

“I want this national day of action to send a clear message to customers that they must treat shopworkers properly.

“We have more police on our streets and they should work with businesses to keep our communities safe and our high streets thriving.”

The Association of Convenience Stores’ 2021 Crime Report shows that over the previous year there were more than 1.2 million incidents of verbal abuse and about 40,000 incidents of violence against people working in convenience stores.

Of these incidents, more than a quarter involved a weapon, such as a knife, hammer, axe or syringe.

“Violence and abuse against shop workers is never acceptable.” Supt Patrick Holdaway who heads the NBCC said.

“The National Business Crime Centre has been working with key stakeholders in police, retail, business crime reduction partnerships and security providers to deliver a series of ‘days of action’ to support the National #ShopKind campaign to protect shop workers, and deter, disrupt and detain persistent and prolific offenders.”

Meanwhile the retail workers’ union Usdaw among others has been urging an equivalent of the Scottish Parliament’s Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland) Act 2021. Usdaw notes that at the end of last year, the House of Lords voted for a protection of workers amendment to put into statute a sentencing aggravating factor that recognises the public-facing role of a victim.

“Violence, threats and abuse have long been a major issue for shop workers, which is why Usdaw launched the Freedom from Fear Campaign in 2003. Shockingly, incidents during the pandemic became much worse, with our survey finding they had doubled at the beginning of the first lockdown. So Government action was long overdue,” Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary said.