Co-op in Cambridgeshire calls on Government to do more to protect workers after staff coughed on, spat at and verbally abused

Central England Co-op is calling on the Government to introduce new legislation to better protect key workers in its stores following shocking rises in incidents of staff being threatened with being coughed on and given coronavirus.

In Cambridgshire, staff have had to endure the following incidents:

*A customer coughing in the face of a store manager and claiming they had COVID-19

*Multiple colleagues verbally abused and some even threatened with physical because they had run out of products

*Colleagues spat out while marshalling queues into stores, to make sure people adhere to social distancing, because it was taking too long to enter the shop

*Customer punched a protective plastic screen because, earlier during lockdown, restrictions had been placed on lottery ticket purchases

The retailer is joining forces with co-operatives up and down the country in a plea to better protect its workers.

New figures have revealed assaults have jumped by 100 per cent, threats and intimidation by 25 per cent and verbal abuse by 175 per cent since the start of the year - and since the lockdown was introduced, there have been more than 100 incidents related directly to people using COVID-19 as a threat.

Debbie Robinson, Central England Co-op chief executive, said: “We continue to see rise upon rise of incidents where our colleagues are verbally threatened or even worse physically abused just for doing the job – something that has only risen during the coronavirus outbreak."

She added: “Their amazing contribution now needs to be recognised by a change in law so anyone who takes the decision to cross the line with our colleagues knows that retail crime is taken seriously."