Joint Statement Promoting a safer working and shopping environment in European commerce

In 1995, the Social partners for Commerce already signed a joint statement on combating violence in commerce, calling to public authorities at a national and local level to pay attention to the problem of violence and crime, and for tripartite action on guidelines for dealing with crime and violence at workplaces and inner cities.

 

Physical or verbal violence and abuse against people working in shops is a concern across Europe. Verbal and physical abuse against staff can lead to physical injury or grave psychological problems and is seriously affecting the victims. Finally, retail crime, violence and abuse also contribute to a deteriorating shopping environment for the consumers.

Violence to workers is a serious problem for staff and their families, but also for employers. In stores where the problem is not addressed staff morale is low, sickness absence is high and skilled and experienced workers are leaving the industry.

The concept of 'external' workplace violence generally covers insults, threats, or physical or psychological aggression exerted by people from outside the organization, including customers and clients, against a person at work that endangers their health, safety or well-being.

Aggressive or violent acts take the form of uncivil behaviour - lack of respect for others; physical or verbal aggression - intention to injure; and/or assault - intention to harm the other person.

Initiatives in some of the Member States (Freedom from Fear Campaign, report on retail crime,...) have clearly shown that if employers recognize the problem, develop clear policies and work together with trade unions and worker representatives as well as with other stakeholders, such as the police and local authorities, together they can create a safer working and shopping environment, while at the same time driving down retail crime.

Violence at work and retail crime needs to be tackled at local, national and international levels. However, in many Member States privacy legislation makes co-operation and exchange of data between businesses and the government authorities difficult. Source protection with the help of electronic article surveillance (EAS) is another means of preventing violence and crime. Invisible tagging of goods could lead to more success in finding offenders and in reducing crime rates. More effective measures to ensure that persons guilty of serious or repeated aggressions can be kept out of the stores where these have taken place should also be considered. Retail crime should be classified by authorities and the justice system so that this reflects its serious effects on the victims concerned.

Finally the lack of comparable statistics makes it difficult to develop a clear understanding of the scope of the problem across the EU.

 

Having discussed this at the Sectoral Social Dialogue for Commerce:

1. EuroCommerce and UNI-Europa Commerce share a common interest for those working in shops and continue to believe that close cooperation between the social partners and public authorities at the European and national level is necessary to tackle the problems that may arise. The successful "Freedom from Fear Campaign" in the UK is proof of this.
    
2. Violence and abuse is a reflection of societal problems which cannot be solved easily but which need to be addressed by public authorities. Therefore, the social partners for commerce call on the public authorities at national and local level to take steps to quantify the problem and work with their respective commerce social partners to develop a response. Abusive behaviour and violence is an issue which is neither restricted to one Member State nor to individual companies.
    
3. EuroCommerce and UNI-Europa Commerce draw attention to the obligations of employers to protect the health and safety of their employees, and recognize the benefits of continuous social dialogue on the European level to monitor developments and to suggest remedies and solutions to crime and violence directed at commerce and the employees working in it. Employees as well as employers should have an interest in a safe shop environment. There is a clear business case in the fight against abusive behaviour and violence in shops because of the negative consequences that were evoked in the workshop. At the same time, the problem cannot be solved by one side of industry alone. Therefore, the prevention of violence has a strong social dialogue dimension.
    
4. The commerce sector has very specific challenges and answers (client contact, the mere number of shops, etc.) that cannot easily be compared to and should not be mixed up with violence at other workplaces. The SSD should work on a commerce specific response.
    
5. Firm action to enable a safer shopping and working environment is needed; tripartite cooperation is a useful way forward. Therefore, they are prepared to participate actively in the development of any European-level materials or other initiatives taken in this respect. Providing training on risk assessment, reporting on risk assessment or organising a day for shop workers (awareness raising) could be a step in the right direction.
   
   Both employers and employees should contribute to creating a safe environment.
   
   Brussels, 28 November 2006