Daniel looking after the shop
It truly was heartening to see the Scottish Parliament agree with me that retail workers deserve to be protected.
I voted to support my private members bill, the Protection of Workers (Retail and Age-restricted Goods and Services) (Scotland)
Bill at Stage 1 in September.
This is only the first hurdle of the legislative race before it can be made law, but given the positive reaction I received so far, I am confident of its chances. Trade Unions, especially Usdaw and retail groups have supported me in this endeavour from day one.
I owe them my thanks and look forward to working with them and other stakeholders as we continue. I have also appreciated the collegiate nature of the other political parties and the Scottish Government in finding common cause to protect our retail workers.
They all agree with me because they see that this bill is needed. Our retail workers deserve the protection of the law. Survey after survey has shown that retail staff do not feel secure in their jobs, with on average 10 assaults taking place in Scotland each day.
This is especially true around proof of age. 100% of respondents said they experienced incidents of abuse when sale was refused and also 100% of respondents had incidents of abuse when asking for proof of age.
My bill will create a new statutory offence of assaulting, threatening or abusing a retail worker, and will provide further legal protections when the worker is carrying out their statutory duties such as age restricted sales.
Something similar to what already exists for emergency workers when they are carrying out their own statutory functions.
Passing my bill into law will provide an important recognition of the key duty shopworkers have upholding the law and the issues they face doing so. Most critically, the pandemic has seen people working in retail performing critical roles, supplying the basic essentials to all of us and keeping us safe as we do so. With further Covid restrictions just announced for the country, we will see more pressure on our retail staff, especially with an uncertain Christmas on the horizon. It’s now more important than ever that we support our retail workers.
I look forward to further dialogue with Scottish
Government Ministers, political parties and key stakeholders to ensure it passes the remaining Parliamentary Stages and becomes law.