We cannot go on like this... all our people deserve to be safe at work

AS RETAILERS, we work hard to make sure our stores are warm, welcoming and safe – not just for customers, but for the millions of people who stock the shelves, walk the floor and serve the tills. Like everyone, they deserve to be safe at work.

But over the last couple of years, these unsung heroes are being made to feel less safe by the actions of some people: customers who will be verbally and physically abusive, or who will threaten and attack them when challenged.

These people are small in number but have a disproportionate impact. And the number of these incidents is increasing. The British Retail Consortium found that incidents of violence and abuse against retail workers almost doubled from more than 450 per day in 2019-20 to more than 850 last year. At Tesco, physical assaults are up by a third on this time last year.

This is unacceptable. And for these colleagues, their families, and all of us who know someone who works in retail, it’s heartbreaking. So what can we do?

First, I want those who break the law in our stores brought to book. After a long campaign by retailers and the union Usdaw, last year the Government made attacking shop workers an aggravating factor in convictions – meaning offenders should get longer sentences. Judges should make use of this power. But we need to go further, as in Scotland, and make abuse or violence towards retail workers an offence in itself.

Second, when someone is picked up for committing a crime in a store, the business should have a right to know how the case is proceeding – which does not happen at the moment. This would help us to spot patterns and provide reassurance that justice is being done.

We need better links between police forces and businesses to prevent crime in the first place. Gangs take advantage of the fact we do not share enough information. We’ll only be able to stop these thugs if we work together.

We’re doing our bit at Tesco – investing £44million over the last four years on security measures such as door access systems, protection screens and digital radios. We’ve also rolled out body-worn cameras for colleagues that need them in order to deter offenders.

Money spent on making sure people are safe at work is always well spent, but it should not have to be like this. Crime is a scourge on society, and an insult to shoppers and retail workers. It is time we put an end to it.