Abuse towards retail staff reached 'peak levels' over the past week
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews has condemned the rising aggression against retail workers, stressing that no one should be abused in their workplace for doing their jobs.
"That's not appropriate, simply not appropriate for anybody to be abused or treated that way at work and I would simply say that you know people are doing their job," Andrews said in a public message. "They're working as hard as I can playing their part to keep us safe, and no one should be treated that way.”
His message comes after Australian Retailers Association (ARA) chief executive officer Paul Zahra informed the premier of rising aggression from customers against retail workers. This included "acts of significant violence," according to Zahra, such as getting beaten up and getting thrown a boiling cup of coffee, among others.
"The behaviour exhibited by customers during the past week reached peak levels, resulting in many retail staff becoming fearful to return to work," said Zahra in an open letter to the premier, adding that the situation also will make it difficult for retailers to operate for the holiday.
In response, Andrews appealed to the public that retail workers should be treated fairly as they are only enforcing rules from higher authorities.
"They don't make the rules, and they didn't create the virus. They're just doing their job and they should be treated fairly, and they should be treated properly," Andrews said.
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Rising customer aggression is only one of the things the administration is getting criticism on, in addition to its alleged lack of providing timely announcements when it comes to its vaccine-checking policies. Zahra said retailers felt "blindsided" after the government brought forward staff vaccination requirements and immediately required vaccine checking.
"These requirements were introduced with very little information on the record and without the provision of a public health order until the day of the legislation coming into place," said Zahra.
Efforts from the association were also in vain as they were "unable to get clarity" on the matter after receiving contradictory advice that caused "great confusion and unnecessary further stress." Moving forward, the ARA called for improved consultation as well as accurate and timely communications from the government.
"We believe many of these challenges could have been minimised or avoided entirely with appropriate consultation and planning with the retail community," said Zahra.
"We also repeat our strong recommendation that vaccination checking is brought into line with the restrictions in place within NSW, which lift on December 15," he added.
