Today in Parliament I joined with members of the retail union Usdaw to campaign for respect for shop workers as part of the Freedom From Fear Campaign, which seeks to prevent violence, threats and abuse directed at retail staff.

Too often retail employees are confronted with violence, threats and abuse and it is really important that the people of Fife stand together and ask people to ‘keep their cool and respect shopworkers’. That is why I support Usdaw’s call for a change in the law to provide stiffer sentences for those who assault workers across the Kingdom.

Usdaw latest Freedom From Fear Survey Report 2013 highlighted shopworkers experiences over the last year. From the first 1,844 response from across the whole of the UK the results found that 49% were victims of verbal abuse, 35% of shopworkers were threatened and 4% suffered violent assaults.

That is why it was very disappointing that the SNP Government blocked my colleague Hugh Henry’s Workers (Aggravated Offences) bill in the last Parliament. That bill would have included all workers serving the public the protections we have already given to emergency service workers.

I hope that we will get an opportunity in this Parliament to vote on such a measure and that the Government will have a change of heart and offer more than warm words this time. There is a real need to address the scourge of workers being assaulted and I am concerned that assailants are getting away with it too easily.

It is important that the issue of violence against shopworkers is being taken seriously. I will continue to campaign with Usdaw for a change in the law to ensure that proper punishments are given out and to give a clear message that assaulting workers who are serving the public is totally unacceptable.

Respect for Shopworkers Week 2013 takes place this week between 11-15 November. It is an annual event where shopworkers talk to the public about the problems of violence threats and abuse, asking customers to ‘keep their cool’. Part of the campaign will be encouraging shopworkers not to take abuse as part of the job and report incidents to their manager.

The event is run by Usdaw (Union of shop, distributive and allied workers) who are the UK’s fourth biggest and the fastest growing trade union with over 433,000 members. Most Usdaw members work in the retail sector, but the Union also has many members in transport, distribution, food manufacturing, chemicals and other trades.