- Huw Hughes
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One in ten retail workers in the UK have experienced “inappropriate
touching of a sexual nature” in their current role, according to a new
survey by British law firm Foot Anstey.
The survey, which polled 1,031 workers aged 18 years or older working in
the UK retail sector between 30 May 30 – 5 June, 2019 found that men and
women were affected equally.
Over a third (36 percent) of those workers believe their employer “could
have done more” to prevent it from happening, while around a quarter (24
percent) believe their current employer does not care about protecting them
from inappropriate behaviour. Forty-one percent of employees who raised a
complaint said they were dissatisfied with the outcome.
Physically aggressive or violent behaviour was experienced by 31 percent
of men in the retail sector compared with 23 percent of women. The large
majority (78 percent) of this aggression came from customers.
Additionally, almost half (47 percent) have heard sexual, racist,
homophobic or other offensive language.
“Eye-catching as these figures are, I think I need to be honest and say
they confirm the suspicions of anyone working in employment law. I hope
they bring to life that quality training for managers in
reputation-damaging issues is more important than ever. Business leaders
want to see an end to the kind of behaviour this study reveals,” Foot
Anstey head of retail and consumer, Patrick Howarth, said in a
statement.
“Our survey shows the majority of sexual harassment comes from within
the business. In Employment Tribunals the instigator is overwhelmingly more
senior than the person making the complaint.”
“Many managers are promoted on the basis of technical abilities and are
not equipped with the leadership skills to deal with harassment – or even
recognise it when they see it. That’s no one’s fault. The important thing
is to change it.”
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