Retail union Usdaw has welcomed an Anti Social Behaviour Order banning a Newcastle man from verbally intimidating shop staff for 10 years.
The order was served on David Fletcher on January 27 and bans him from entering the premises of any Tesco, B&Q, Safeway, Sainsbury, Morrisons, Somerfield, Matalan and North Eastern Co-op in England and Wales.
Fletcher is prohibited from contacting, interfering with or threatening any employee of these stores. According to the union, he had been going into shops acting in an intimidating and aggressive manner towards staff. As staff were distracted by his verbal intimidation a team of people would be stealing goods from the shop with spirits being a particular target.
Usdaw reports it has been running a Freedom From Fear campaign after discovering shopworkers are being assaulted or threatened every minute of the working day.
The union says it has been a strong supporter of ASBOs in and around shops since the Government began introducing them to seriously tackle anti-social behaviour.
What they say
Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett said: “This is major breakthrough in using ASBOs to protect vulnerable retail staff as the severity of the ban sends out a clear signal to anyone who thinks they can verbally intimidate staff and get away with it.”
“We’re delighted it is a ban that covers England and Wales as it means this man can’t just move somewhere else to make other shopworkers lives a misery. Our Freedom From Fear campaign has highlighted the day to day violence that shopworkers suffer and I’m pleased the authorities in the North East have taken such a hard line to protect workers who have a right to work free from intimidation.”
Shocked by the level of intimidation, says Usdaw, it carried out a national survey of its members and found more than half of Britain’s shopworkers are concerned about violence and verbal threats. The Freedom From Fear campaign has persuaded employers, the union claims, to improve workplace safety and create partnerships to tackle offenders at crime hotspots in and around stores. Usdaw adds that it is campaigning to keep this issue as a national crime priority.