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As the article points out, given the rampant levels of shoplifting in the UK (and the associated abuse of staff), all of the major retailers and a lot of their

As the article points out, given the rampant levels of shoplifting in the UK (and the associated abuse of staff), all of the major retailers and a lot of their staff are going to be on board with this. For the government and police, it's a cheap option to deal with the problem.

dspillett 2y ago
The staff don't really care about lifting: they really aren't paid enough for it to be their problem, or cared for enough by the employers such that they care if the employer looses a bit through shoplifting. The few that do care see the heavy end of the abuse you mention, and those that don't see abuse anyway, and if it isn't on CCTV the employers don't seem to care (it is far too much hassle to prosecute) despite the higher-ups pretending otherwise: that is why the staff support CCTV and related monitoring, not the lifting. The abuse is a very real problem, I know a few who work in shops, all of whom have been verbally abused and physically threatened at various times. One of them was not long ago punched in the face in front of witnesses. Tesco, ever caring, had her working the next day, just a few hours later (incident happened on late shift, next shift was early morning, "are you sure you can't come in?, it'll be hard to find someone to cover") and seemed to put as more effort into investigating what she might have done wrong as they put into helping the police gather evidence to investigate the abusive individual, so she was glad of the CCTV. She got out off Tesco as quick as she could. She has had notification from the police that the individual involved is being prosecuted, but for a number of other offences also so it is unlikely she'll need to testify or otherwise be involved further. The staff want the CCTV because they don't trust the managers and higher to look after their interests otherwise.

dspillett 2y ago

The staff don't really care about lifting: they really aren't paid enough for it to be their problem, or cared for enough by the employers such that they care if the employer looses a bit through shoplifting. The few that do care see the heavy end of the abuse you mention, and those that don't see abuse anyway, and if it isn't on CCTV the employers don't seem to care (it is far too much hassle to prosecute) despite the higher-ups pretending otherwise: that is why the staff support CCTV and related monitoring, not the lifting. The abuse is a very real problem, I know a few who work in shops, all of whom have been verbally abused and physically threatened at various times. One of them was not long ago punched in the face in front of witnesses. Tesco, ever caring, had her working the next day, just a few hours later (incident happened on late shift, next shift was early morning, "are you sure you can't come in?, it'll be hard to find someone to cover") and seemed to put as more effort into investigating what she might have done wrong as they put into helping the police gather evidence to investigate the abusive individual, so she was glad of the CCTV. She got out off Tesco as quick as she could. She has had notification from the police that the individual involved is being prosecuted, but for a number of other offences also so it is unlikely she'll need to testify or otherwise be involved further. The staff want the CCTV because they don't trust the managers and higher to look after their interests otherwise.