ACS

Retailers are demanding equal treatment with Doctors and Nurses when those who conducted violent attacks against them are convicted.

The call was made by James Lowman, Chief Executive of ACS (the Association of Convenience Stores) in a letter to Jack Straw the Justice Secretary support of Respect for Shop Workers Week run by USDAW, the shop workers Union.

In the letter, ACS has called for clarity in the sentencing guidelines to ensure that harming a retailer at work is treated as an aggravating factor when convicted offenders are sentenced. ACS has called on Mr Straw to expand current sentencing guidelines to make explicit that attacks on workers that provide a service in the local community, like shop workers, should always be subject to the same treatment as public sector workers like nurses, police and firemen.

Research from the Freedom from Fear campaign reveals that a shop worker is verbally abused, threatened with violence or physically attacked every minute of the working day. The campaign has also revealed that more than 1 in 10 shop workers have been assaulted in the course of their work; a figure which USDAW see as unacceptable.

ACS Chief Executive James Lowman said: “Shop workers deliver an essential service to the public across the UK, and it is vital that attacks on them are treated with the same severity as an attack on a nurse or policeman. We want to minimise the number of assaults on shop workers and awareness campaigns such as Freedom from Fear take important steps toward this goal.”