The British Retail Consortium (BRC) and union Usdaw urged UK government to follow Scotland's example in extending new protection for shop workers. BRC boss Helen Dickinson said "enough is enough. It is incomprehensible that despite Holyrood's decisive action, the UK government has so far failed to provide the same protections to shop workers in the rest of the UK," the head of the trade group said.
The new Scottish law will also see tougher sentences for perpetrators. Usdaw is also calling on the government to bring forward an amendment to extend the same protections to retail staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland when its policing bill goes to the House of Lords for a second reading in September.
Its general secretary, Paddy Lillis, said shop workers face "violence, threats and abuse" on a regular basis. This has been exacerbated by staff being asked to enforce Covid-related measures such as social distancing or mask-wearing during the pandemic, Usdaw said.
"We've always had abuse against us, but since the pandemic it has gotten so much worse," says Michelle Whitehead, who has worked at the supermarket in Wolverhampton for two decades. After politely asking customers to wear a face mask when restrictions were in place, or explaining why certain items were out of stock, she has faced both verbal and physical abuse. One male customer told her he would wait for her after closing. Others have threatened to hit her with a walking stick and spat at her.
"I have come home and cried because of it... I enjoy my job and love most of the customers - I just want to get on with it," she says. She would like to see a tougher stance taken in England: "It would make people stop and think before they shouted and bawled at us because they might be prosecuted - it'd save me coming home crying. "Most of the abusers don't realise we're actually people... It'd be nice to have a clear message to say: 'We're shop workers and assaulting and abusing us is totally unacceptable.'"