Central England Co-op demands tougher action to protect staff

Central England Co-op is demanding tougher action from Government to protect its staff after receiving "multiple" reports of customers threatening to cough on shop workers to give them coronavirus.

The Co-op has responded to Government plans to deal with threats and violence towards shop workers by claiming that more still needs to be done.

The retailer has reflected on the findings of a consultation entitled ‘Call for Evidence – Violence and Abuse Towards Shop Staff’ after last week launching a joint campaign with other retailers to lobby for Government action to protect those who ensure communities have access to food and essential supplies.

New figures from the retailer, which has more than 260 stores across 16 counties, showed that reports of assault against its staff have jumped by 100 per cent and reports of threats and intimidation have risen by 25 per cent since the start of the year. Cases of verbal abuse have also risen by 175 per cent so far during 2020.

Since the lockdown was introduced, there have been more than 100 incidents related directly to people using COVID-19 as a threat.

The Co-op said: "Examples of incidents have included multiple threats by customers to cough on colleagues and ‘give them Coronavirus’ and further threats of assaults because people have had to queue to enter stores, social distance or simply because they do not have a specific product."

Some of the actions proposed in the Government report include the development of a best practice guide to help staff report crimes and ensure they have the correct support.

The report urges police forces and police and crime commissioners to "reach out" to retailers to understand the scale of the problem locally.

It also calls on police forces to ensure that the theft of goods up to £200 should be prosecuted as a criminal offence

Debbie Robinson, Central England Co-op chief executive, said: “While we welcome these positive steps by the Government, we still think more could and should be done to protect our store colleagues and all shop workers from threats and physical abuse.

“We continue to believe that this kind of behaviour is not acceptable, and we will not tolerate any kind of abuse to our colleagues and we again urge the Government to work harder to recognise the people it itself has recognised as being of vital importance to our daily lives.