Goodwill to all – except shop workers

Retail workers are under increasing levels of abuse from customers.

A recent study by the Retail Trust surveying more than 1,600 retail workers found that 2 in 5 retail workers experience verbal or physical abuse every week with over half feeling unsafe at work.

Of greater concern is the rate at which abuse is rising. The British Retail Consortium in its 2023 Crime Survey found incidents of violence and abuse towards retail employees had almost doubled on pre-pandemic levels.

The expected Christmas hike in footfall will undoubtedly expose our shop workers to further risk.

In response to the rising tide of violence large retailers including Sainsburys, Waitrose, Co-op and Tesco are now offering body cams to staff on the frontline and many blame the proliferation of ‘steal to order’ organised gangs for the issues that they are facing.

For many retailers the current climate raises questions about your legal responsibilities as an employer.

Under the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 an employer has a statutory duty to protect their employees from harm. In addition to this statutory duty employers also have a common law duty of care.

A failure to meet these duties could lead to a personal injury claim and where it is clear that the employer had failed to respond to a pattern of abuse an employee with 2 years’ service could resign and successfully claim constructive dismissal.

Employers must take reasonable steps to satisfy these duties. This essentially means undertaking thorough risk assessment and taking appropriate action to address the risks that have been identified.

Most retailers are familiar with risk assessments, however these generally focus on ‘slips, trips, and falls’ but fail to consider the threats posed by customers.

We would recommend that retailers take action now to ensure that customer abuse is a key part of a risk assessment.

Start by walking around the premises. Are there specific areas of your premises that attract negative customer behaviour? Focus on areas with high value goods, areas prone to bottle necks and queues, blind spots etc. Adjusting the layout of your store could be a potential way of addressing future problems.

Next identify potential triggers or flashpoints, such as customer interactions involving returns or refunds, ID checks, challenging suspected shoplifters or intoxicated customers etc. Once identified you should put in place clear processes and training to deal with your triggers, such as:

• helping employees recognising the signs of conflict early, such as recognising the physiological changes in a customer’s body language
• helping employees to control their own actions to reduce conflict, such as using open body language, controlled tone of voice
• having clear escalation and response strategies that can move an intervention to a safe area with access to other colleagues, a panic button or escape route.

It is also important to identify employees that are at higher risk, such as trainees or temporary staff, key holders, lone workers and focus on what additional steps can be taken to protect their welfare.

Effective customer education and awareness can foster positive interaction with your frontline staff. Retailers should consider displaying posters, shelf sliders, badges that remind customers to treat staff with kindness. The government’s ShopKind campaign has a range of free downloadable formats available to retailers.

A last point to note is that an effective risk assessment and action plan requires staff involvement, without which it would be difficult to claim all threats have been covered.

Beyond discharging your duties under the Health & Safety legislation and common law what else does an employer need to consider in relation to abusive customers?

The Equality Act 2010 protects employees from discrimination, harassment and victimisation based on a protected characteristic such as race, religion, age, disability, gender etc . Previously employers could be in breach of the Act if they failed to take steps to prevent third party harassment, however this provision was repealed in 2013.

The government had proposed to reintroduce third-party harassment provisions in the forthcoming Worker Protection Amendment of Equality Act 2010 Bill, however this was subject to a last-minute U-turn.

It would be remiss of an employer however to simply focus on their legal exposure when addressing customer abuse. Abuse by customers lowers morale which leads to lower productivity, higher sickness absence and greater attrition.

In a 2020 Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) survey when asked what retail workers want from their employers with regards to retail crime the top response was – More management support.

It is obvious that many of the retail workers feel they are not getting the right level of support from their employer and in the absence of a committed strategy with robust policies and training this messaging will also discourage new recruits.

For more information on the topic above please contact Stuart Buglass.