Supermarket workers at Tesco are set to be offered bodycams as violence against shop staff surges.
Tesco Chief Executive Keith Murphy said physical attacks on the company’s workers had jumped up by a third year-on-year.
Earlier this year the British Retail Consortium (BRC) reported incidents of violence and abuse against shop staff rose from 450 a day in 2019/20 to more than 850 last year.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, Mr Murphy called attacks on supermarket staff “unacceptable”.
He said: “As retailers, we work hard to make sure our stores are warm, welcoming and safe –not just for customers, but for the millions of people who stock the shelves, walk the floor and serve the tills. Like everyone, they deserve to be safe at work.
“But over the last couple of years, these unsung heroes are being made to feel less safe by the actions of some people: customers who will be verbally and physically abusive, or who will threaten and attack them when challenged.”
Other large supermarket chains have already rolled out bodycams to some frontline staff, including Waitrose and Co-op.
Mr Murphy also called for changes to the law to make attacking a retail worker a specific offence.
He also called for better information sharing with the police to tackle rising crime, including shoplifting – with Co-op in July saying some areas were becoming no-go areas for the convenience store chain.
Speaking at the time, Paddy Lillis, General Secretary of the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) said: “Having to deal with repeated and persistent shoplifters can cause issues beyond the theft itself like anxiety, fear and in some cases physical harm to retail workers.
“There must be better coordination to ensure that government, retail employers, police and the courts work together to help protect shopworkers, giving them the protection they deserve.”
