Violence against workers could be criminal offence

30 Apr 2024

The Government has stated that assaulting a retail worker will be made a standalone criminal offence, and has set out new actions to crack down on retail crime.

Perpetrators could be sent to prison for up to six months, receive an unlimited fine and be banned from going back to the shop where they committed their crimes, with criminal behaviour orders barring them visiting specific premises. Breaching an order is also a criminal offence and carries a five-year maximum prison sentence. For the most serious cases of assault, such as causing grievous bodily harm with intent, offenders could face a life sentence.

The government is also stepping up action to clamp down on offenders who repeatedly target the country’s high streets, with serial offenders forced to wear tags to track their movements.

The use of facial recognition technology will be increased to help catch perpetrators and prevent shoplifting in the first place. Backed by a £55.5 million investment over the next four years, the police will be able to further roll out this new state-of-the-art technology.

The government has driven forward significant efforts to tackle retail crime in the past year, bringing together policing and business to commit to smarter, more joined-up working to reduce criminal behaviour and rebuild public confidence in the police response when it does occur.

Crime and Policing Minister Chris Philp said:

“Sadly, if you speak to anyone working in retail, they will tell you of the verbal abuse and sometimes violent assaults they’ve been victims of, simply for trying to do their job. In no other workplace would this be accepted. I have been driving forward action to improve the police response to retail crime since I became Policing Minister, because nothing less than a zero-tolerance approach will do. That’s why today we’re sending a clear message to criminals that enough is enough, bringing forward further measures to protect retail workers and crack down on those who continuously disregard the law.”

Helen Dickinson, Chief Executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:

“After relentless campaigning for a specific offence for assaulting retail workers, the voices of the three million people working in retail are finally being heard. The impact of retail violence has steadily worsened, with people facing racial abuse, sexual harassment, threatening behaviour, physical assault and threats with weapons, often linked to organised crime. Victims are ordinary hardworking people – teenagers taking on their first job, carers looking for part-time work, parents working around childcare.

“This announcement sends a clear message that abusive behaviour will not be tolerated and it is vital the police use this new legislation to step up their response to incidents. Together, we must stamp out this scourge in crime that has been sweeping the nation and ensure retail workers are given the vital protections they deserve.”

Clearly retail isn’t the only sector affected by violence. In March we featured an article from IOSH about how frontline health workers are being issued with body cameras for their personal protection.

A 2023 NHS staff survey showed nearly 26% of participants had reported at least one incident of harassment, bullying or abuse from service users, their relatives or other members of the public over a 12-month period.

IOSH Research Programme Lead, Dr Karen Michell gives the following pointers.

Recognise violence and abuse as occupational hazards and give them the same focus afforded to other hazards.
Conduct risk assessments to identify and address the hazards. As psychosocial hazards, abuse and violence are very often poorly risk rated, leaving health workers vulnerable.
Develop and implement zero-tolerance policies and back these up with workplace-specific procedures to follow as needed. Staff, the public and patients need to be aware of these policies.
Conflict may give rise to abuse and violence, so training health workers in how to avoid and manage conflict will aid de-escalation.
Avoid lone working, especially in areas such as emergency units where tensions may run high.
Ensure health workers have a means of raising the alarm, e.g. provide coded calls or alarm buttons if the potential for escalation is identified.
Train staff in how to manage their stress so they can better respond to situations.
Organise debriefing sessions to allow workers to verbalise fears and anxieties and talk through their experiences – this supports their mental health.
Conduct incident investigations for all events, including verbal abuse cases. Identify why events occur to help manage the root cause.
NHS trusts also need to consider how delayed appointments, people’s inability to make appointments and long waiting times, for example, are contributing factors. They would do well to reflect that, sadly, it’s the front-line workers, like nurses and doctors, who fall victim to abuse stemming from frustration.

Whatever the sector, it’s clear violence shouldn’t just be accepted as part of the job.

The HSE defines work-related violence as "any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work". This can include verbal abuse or threats, including face to face, online and via telephone and physical attacks.

This might include violence from members of the public, customers, clients, patients, service users and students towards a person at work. But for violence to be work-related, it must be in connection with the work activity. For example, the following situations would not be included in this definition:

Personal disputes between workers and other people, such as family members.
Violence between people not at work, such as customers or service users.

For employers, violence can lead to increased staff sickness, poor morale and a damaged reputation, making it difficult to recruit and keep staff. It can also mean extra cost, with higher insurance premiums and compensation payments.

Identifying the risks
As an employer, you must carry out a risk assessment to identify significant risks to your workers and implement effective control measures. This includes how to prevent and manage violence.

The first step in your risk assessment is to identify the hazards. A hazard is anything that can cause harm to people. This can include both verbal and online abuse, and physical assault to your workers.

There are number of ways to identify your hazards, but here are some tips:

Ask your workers about their experiences and what they think – this can be done through supervisors, managers or safety representatives, or through a survey.
Look around at your workplace, including how people work and their working environment.
Look back at your incident records on work-related violence.
There may be a known pattern of violence linked to certain work situations (professional organisations and trade unions may have useful information).

Once you have assessed the risk of violence in your workplace, and where you cannot remove it, you must put the right controls in place to protect your workers.

You should reduce the risks so far as ‘reasonably practicable’. This means balancing the level of risk against the measures needed to control the real risk in terms of money, time or trouble.

Training
Training can be used to prevent and manage violence. It can provide workers with appropriate skills to reduce or diffuse potential incidents.

Training should be available to everyone working for you who may be at risk, including cleaners and maintenance workers. This also applies to temporary or agency workers. However, you must ensure the level of training provided to workers reflects the specific needs of the work activities identified in your risk assessment.

Basic training in the principles of managing violence often includes:

Identifying underlying and immediate causes.
Understanding that it should not be accepted as part of the job.
Recognising warning signs, such as body language.
Relevant interpersonal skills, such as verbal and non-verbal communication skills.
Details of working practices and control measures.
Incident reporting procedures.

You might need to include additional training, such as physical intervention techniques, if there is a serious risk of physical aggression towards your workers.

Training needs should be monitored and reviewed regularly, and training courses evaluated for their effectiveness. You should carry out refresher training periodically to ensure workers’ skills are kept up to date.