New safety council underway to protect retail workers

A new safety council in Australia will soon be established to address the rising incidents of customer abuse and violence against retail employees.

Its establishment follows the agreement made by the Australian Retailers Association (ARA), the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees' Association (SDA), as well as other major retailers and shopping centres in a recent roundtable.

"A sector-wide safety council would be an effective step forward, as would the other measures agreed today," said Gerard Dwyer, National Secretary from the SDA, in a statement.

Other measures agreed upon during the roundtable include:

• Working on further steps designed to prevent customer abuse and violence
• Developing a funding model for enhanced public awareness campaigns
• Advocating jointly for further law reform to address assault of retail workers
• Providing high quality and effective training for all levels of retail staff
• Developing informed support to reduce the impact of trauma and employees

ARA chief executive Paul Zahra said the roundtable saw industry, government, and the SDA in "fierce alignment" on overcoming increased incidents of customer abuse and violence within retail.

"All retail workers have a right to feel safe at work and the wellbeing of this vital workforce has a flow on effect to the wellbeing of many others in our community," Zahra said in a statement. "Being yelled at, spat at, punched or groped is not tolerated in any other workplace, and must not be accepted in retail."

Retail abuse in Australia

The new measures come as recent findings from the ARA revealed that more than 92% of retailers have experienced or have had a team member experience verbal or physical assault while at work. Among them, over 60% are from small to medium businesses.

But even employees of major organisations are not safe from abuse.

Supermarket giant Woolworths said it saw an "increase in cases of aggression" towards its employees that were reported in the past 12 months.

To address the issue, the supermarket giant is investing in "CCTV upgrades, two-way radio headsets, as well as virtual reality violence and aggression training." It is also extending to staff an application that will grant them unlimited access to health professionals.

Meanwhile, the governments of South Australia, the Northern Territories, and New South Wales have also been introducing tougher laws to protect retail workers.

Zahra said they want other states to follow the footsteps of these governments and "toughen laws to better protect our retail workers and keep them safe."