To think back to when we were clapping our frontline and key workers, now, shockingly these people who educate, transport and keep the nation fed are coming under attack.
A recent Back-Up report refers to increasing evidence that levels of work-related violence have soared over the course of the Covid pandemic.
One clear union demand from across economic sectors is for perpetrators to face and actually receive sanctions for their actions.
The Usdaw retail union has long called for legal change to better protect shop workers and is now looking for MPs’ support to back an amendment to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. This would create a standalone offence for a person to assault, threaten or abuse a retail worker.
Currently sentencing is complicated, involving three categories of harm and culpability, 19 aggravating factors reducing seriousness according to sentencing guidelines. A separate offence for assaulting a retail worker would be easy to determine, encourage prosecutions and provide the deterrent effect that members are desperately looking for.
In 2020 Usdaw’s survey of nearly 3,000 shop workers found that 88 per cent had experienced verbal abuse, 60 per cent were threatened by a customer, nine per cent were assaulted and 79 per cent of shop workers say abuse was worse last year.
Assaults against ambulance workers also rose during the pandemic year – from March 2020 to April 2021. Figures released in June show there were more than 10,000 incidents of violence and aggression, including physical and verbal assaults on ambulance staff, up 12 per cent from the previous year and an increase of 30 per cent since 2016-17.
Unite and GMB general unions have welcomed news that the NHS will provide ambulance crews across England with body cameras as part of a plan to reduce attacks on staff. But without prosecutions and sentencing for those who attack our emergency service workers, the assaults are likely to continue.
There has been more calls for employers to do more to protect their staff and a culture of indifference that can lead to incompetent and dismissive attitudes must be put aside. Warnings over increased levels of violence should not be ignored in the wake of increased incidents on the railways.
Crimes against staff need to be investigated by the police for their culpability and staff deserve to be protected more while at work.
Nobody should return home from work any differently than when they left home that day.
Clearly more action is required over violence at work.
Rodney Sadd
Crowland
