Violence against shop workers doubles during COVID-19 pandemic, Usdaw survey shows

Covid-19 pandemic has seen abuse, threats and assaults against shop workers doubling, reveals a new survey by Usdaw.

Whilst the union’s 2019 survey found a shop worker on average facing some form of violence every fortnight, this has risen to each week in the last month, statistics released today by USdaw showed.

“I had never cried in work until the first week of the lockdown,” said a shop worker in their feedback to the survey.

“I received constant abuse from nearly every customer during one shift when the rules were changed so that we couldn’t accept returns. I finally broke when one woman refused to leave the store and insulted me and berated me for not doing the return.”

The survey found one in six workers face experiences like these in each shift.

“I have been spat at, pushed and treated as if I wasn’t there. Customers have walked up to me or leaned over me while I am filling shelves,” another shop worker revealed.

Nearly two thirds of the workers (62%) experience verbal abuse and almost a third were threatened by a customer, the survey found. Four percent of them faced assaults.

Paddy Lillis, Usdaw general secretary, called for urgent action to tackle the menace.

“We are shocked that violence, threats and abuse have doubled during this national emergency,” he said. “At a time when we should all be working together to get through this crisis, it is a national disgrace that people working to keep food on the shelves for their local communities are being abused and assaulted.”

The respondents revealed that some of the shoppers are resisting social distancing measures in stores and can become abusive when asked to queue and maintain a two-metre gap.

“Verbal and physical abuse from customers, it’s not nice, we are only trying to enforce social distancing but customers are using the trip to the shops as a day out and putting the staff at risk, then we return to our families in fear and panic because of the small minded stupidity,” a shop worker said.

“I have been verbally abused by customers. Pushed by a customer. Been told to shut up and ‘F-off’ when mentioning limitations or the one way system,” another told the survey.

The shop workers also noted an increase in shoplifting.

“We had an increase in shoplifters and the security was attacked twice. We have seen incidents of spitting, being coughed on and a refusal by customers to observe social distancing,” said a worker.

Another commented: “Shoplifting is becoming really bad. We are being verbally abused by criminals and some staff have been a victim of violence.”