Paddy Lillis - Usdaw general secretary says: “Last month the Government U-turned on the need to legislate to protect shop workers from violence, threats and abuse, by announcing they would create a standalone offence in their Criminal Justice Bill. This turned out to be a political stunt trying to undermine Labour’s commitment on this. I am now not convinced that they ever intended to follow through on this promise, after failing to support the Labour amendment, delaying the passage of the Bill and then allowing it fall before Parliament closed for a general election.
 
“The dither and delay of this Government, on this issue, over many years, has
led to thousands of shop workers needlessly suffering physical and mental injury. It is an absolute disgrace to play games with the lives of shop workers, key workers in every community, on the front line suffering unprecedented violence, abuse and threats in a retail crime epidemic. The Tory record is one of effectively decriminalising theft from shops.
 
“This, among many reasons, is why we need a Labour Government. Labour is committed to deliver for retail staff in England and Wales the protection of shop workers law that has existed in Scotland for three years. Labour will end the perverse £200 threshold for prosecuting shoplifters, which has effectively become an open invitation to retail criminals. Labour will provide more uniformed officers patrolling shopping areas and introduce town centre banning orders for repeat offenders.
 
“We hope that fourteen years of Tory failure are about to come to an end, so that our members can secure the change they desperately need on this and many other issues. Shop workers need the respect that they have long deserved and, regrettably, too often do not receive. We need Labour to deliver this.”
 
Notes for editors:
 
Usdaw (Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers) is one of the fastest growing unions in the TUC and the UK's fifth biggest trade union with around 360,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemical industry and other trades www.usdaw.org.uk
 
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter @UsdawUnion