Dean is urging Government to make assaulting a shop worker a criminal offence in its own right– after one supermarket giant revealed violence against staff in Watford soared in the pandemic.
Dean believes the move would send out a strong message that violence against frontline workers will not be tolerated and show workers who have worked tirelessly how valued they are.
Figures given by Tesco show across Watford that there were 399 attacks on staff in 2020/21, up from 259 the previous year. This is a 54% increase.
Dean said: “There has been a worrying increase in assaults on our frontline workers who have worked tirelessly throughout the pandemic to keep us fed. This increase is extremely concerning and given Tesco is only one of a number of supermarkets in the area, I fear these figures will be similar in other stores. No one should go to work and be in fear of attack and we need to send out a clear message to anyone who attacks a worker that they will feel the full force of the law and their behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Dean is part of Blue Collar Conservatives, a group of MPs in Westminster, wanting to give hard-working British voters a voice and to ensure Government policy reflects the needs of their families and communities. By turning politics on its head and escaping the Westminster bubble the group want to let people have their say and those views fed back to ministers.
The group want Government to introduce a specific offence of assaulting a shop worker, as is the case for emergency workers. The MPs believe it could act as a deterrent and send out the warning any assault will be taken seriously and a hefty sentence handed down by the courts for anyone guilty of the crime.
Tesco UK CEO Jason Tarry said: “Every day our colleagues, along with hundreds of other retail workers, in every region of the UK face abuse, threats of violence and are even assaulted, simply for doing their jobs. This is not acceptable. Our stores should be safe places to work and shop. There is an opportunity to change the law that will increase the protection of shopworkers as they carry out their daily tasks and we welcome the support of Blue Collar MPs on this critical issue.”
The supermarket’s figures for England and Wales show a 50 per cent increase in violent incidents year on year with 19,747 in 2020/21 up from 13,316 the previous year. As of April, 5,203 violent incidents have been recorded. Tesco has approximately 250,000 frontline colleagues, meaning 1 in every 12 experienced a serious incident, which it defines as an incident involving a weapon, assault or a threat to colleagues.
Earlier this week the supermarket giant met with BCC colleagues to discuss attacks on staff in a bid to stamp out the behaviour. Tesco told MPs it has spent £250 million on safety measures to help protect staff since the pandemic.
