Abuse is not part of the job – Respect for Shopworkers Week
This article will take approximately 2 minutes to read
Published 14 Nov 2022 in Raising Awareness
This week we are working in partnership with USDAW to raise awareness of the Freedom from Fear campaign which works to prevent violence, abuse and threats against shop workers. Hear from Meg Ridley and the Safe Stores team below on what we are doing to combat this and the support available for our colleagues.
At Midcounties our colleague’s safety is our top priority which is why we are working in partnership with USDAW to raise awareness of the Freedom from Fear campaign with our colleagues, members, local councillors, and police. We do not want our colleagues to tolerate threats, abuse and violence as part of their job.
The Safe Stores team are continuing to implement additional security measures to ensure our colleagues feel safe whilst at work and we want to encourage our store teams to continue to log incidents on the reporting portal so we can build case files against these offenders and ensure the correct aftercare is given to any colleague involved in an incident.
Did you know?
USDAW’s freedom from fear campaign survey last year highlighted that 90% of shop workers experienced verbal abuse, 64% were threatened by a customer and 12% were assaulted. The campaign works to prevent violence, threats and abuse that shopworkers face by engaging the public, shopworkers and the Government.
Watch the video update to learn more.
Log incidents
We want to encourage our store teams to continue to log incidents on the NBCS reporting portal and making sure they include details of violence, threats and abuse. The Safe Stores Team will then be able to further support our store colleagues by deploying Roaming Officers and ensuring the right aftercare is given to any colleague involved in an incident.
Hear from one of our Roaming Officers.
Additional Security measures
The Safe Stores team are continuing to implement additional security measures to help support high-incident areas and ensure our colleagues feel safe whilst at work.
Support is here
For colleagues that are involved in these incidents, we have a number of resources to help support you including 24/7 support from our retail charity partner, Grocery aid and our dedicated Everymind wellbeing app alongside support from our HR teams and Store Management.