Paddy Lillis – Usdaw General Secretary says: “Shop workers deserve far more respect than they receive. It is shocking that over two-thirds of our members working in retail are suffering abuse from customers, with far too many experiencing threats and violence. Seven in ten of these incidents were triggered by theft from shops, which is clearly the result of a near doubling of police recorded shoplifting across Northern Ireland since the pandemic.
“We welcome that the Northern Ireland Justice Minister has agreed to introduce a new offence of assaulting a person providing a public service, performing a public duty or providing services to the public. Usdaw and the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium made representations to the Minister on this matter and we look forward to continuing to engage with the Executive as this legislation passes through Stormont.
“This week, Usdaw activists will be campaigning in their workplaces and communities calling on the shopping public to ‘respect shop workers’ and ‘keep your cool’, particularly in the run-up to Christmas when the number of incidents increases as shops get busy and customers become frustrated. All retail workers deserve legal protection from abuse, threats and violence. Effective legislation in Northern Ireland is needed to protect retail workers and make it clear that abuse is not part of the job.”
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
Interim results of Usdaw’s 2024 survey, based on 4,073 responses, show that: 69% were verbally abused, 45% were threatened. 17% of shop workers had been assaulted. Of those who were abused, threatened or assaulted, 70% said that shop theft was the trigger, and their assessment of the underlying issues was 64% related to a drug and/or alcohol use. The final results of the survey will be published in March 2025.
Police Service of Northern Ireland Recorded Crime Statistics, covering the year to the end of August 2024, show that overall crime is down by 10%, all categories of crime are down except shoplifting which is up by 4% over the last 12 months. Looking further back, since the pandemic 2020/21 the number of incidents of shoplifting has nearly doubled from 4,464 to 8,708 – a 95% increase https://www.psni.police.uk/about-us/our-publications-andreports/official-statistics/police-recorded-crime-statistics
Usdaw’s Freedom From Fear Campaign seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse against workers by engaging the public, shop workers and the Government. www.usdaw.org.uk/Campaigns/Freedom-From-Fear
For Usdaw press releases visit: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/news and you can follow us on Twitter/X @UsdawUnion