Violence at work

Huge rise in violence and abuse of retail workers over the pandemic

The latest crime survey published by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has revealed that retail workers were subjected to a huge rise in violence and abuse over the pandemic, with incidents almost tripling from 455 per day in 2019/2020 to 1,301 in 2020/2021. The BRC said this spike was concentrated in a significantly reduced number of stores and retail operations as much of the industry was closed throughout the year because of Covid-19 restrictions.