Community: The Union for Life

Following a rise in robberies and violence against betting shop workers, Community lobbied the former Government for improvements to safety standards and launched a safety charter for betting shop workers. The charter, to be launched in London today May 25^th, represents the work of all involved stakeholders.

The Government convened a "roundtable" of key stakeholders, including local authorities, the industry, the police and the union to look at what steps could be taken to address the issue. Following this stakeholder group meeting for the last year - the minimum standards document, a voluntary code, aimed at reducing violence and robberies within the betting industry, will be launched today.

Commenting on the document Christine Hardacre, Regional Director of Community Union said:

‘The stakeholder group has come a long way since the roundtable and demonstrates what can be achieved when the union representing betting shop workers and the industry engage in real dialogue. Community would have liked the document to have gone further and included greater safety measures, particularly around the issue of single staffing. Never the less the document is an important milestone in improving standards in the industry, setting minimum standards on risk assessment but importantly laying down minimum standards on training to deal with conflict management and policy procedures for dealing with violence in the workplace.

‘Importantly, the industry has agreed to share data on violence in the workplace - allowing the effectiveness of the voluntary code to be assessed. The stakeholder group have, in addition, agreed to evaluate the effectiveness of the initiative within a twelve month period.

‘It is now up to the industry to demonstrate that they take this initiative seriously by implementing the minimum standards in full. Community will continue to press for improved safety standards in the industry and the full implementation of its charter.’