Woolworths takes steps to protect employees from retail crime

Woolworths unveiled on Thursday the steps it is taking to protect employees as the supermarket giant recorded over 3,000 acts of violence, threats, and abuse against staff in the past 12 months.

CEO Bradford Banducci said in the company's annual general meeting that they are investing in "CCTV upgrades, two-way radio headsets, as well as virtual reality violence and aggression training."

Banducci also announced that they are partnering with tech company Sonder to provide employees with an application that will give them unlimited access to health professionals, as well as safety, mental health, physical health, and wellbeing support.

"Equally important to us is the mental wellbeing of our team," Banducci said in his address.

Increasing aggression for retail workers

The measures come as the CEO slammed the increasing cases of aggression faced by its employees over the past 12 months.

"Sadly, we have also seen an increase in cases of aggression towards our team members, particularly in our stores with more than 3,000 acts of violence, threats and abuse reported in the past 12 months," he said.

"This is not acceptable, and we are putting in place additional measures to support our team."

A recent survey from the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) also unveiled that 91% of retail organisations said their employees have experienced retail crime.

The top three criminal activities faced by retailers include shoplifting, verbal abuse, and customer aggression.

"Most of our members have seen an increase in retail crime and have had enough of the toll this is taking on their teams," said ARA CEO Paul Zahra in a statement. "It shouldn't be the norm to be spat at, yelled at or punched for simply doing your job."

A study early this year from the University of Sydney and the Australia National University also found that one in five retail workers have personally experienced sexual harassment at work.

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

For Woolworths, Banducci said they are "working closely with the government to advocate for legislative change to help further protect retail workers."

Workplace fatalities

Meanwhile, Woolworths also reported the deaths of two team members.

The first was a contract cleaner who passed away while working with a cleaning machine in November last year, with the second being a team member who was fatally injured while engaging with equipment in June this year.

"The formal investigations into each event to identify the root causes are ongoing, and we are fully cooperating with SafeWork NSW to ensure a thorough review is completed with no stone left unturned," Banducci said.

Immediate measures have also been taken at the sites of the workplace fatalities to ensure the safety of employees, according to Banducci.

Scott Perkins, chair of Woolworths Group, added that the Board also agreed on a 10% absolute reduction in the Group's short-term incentive for the vast majority of above-store salaried team members for FY23 in the wake of the incidents.

"Despite a Group-wide effort and resulting steady improvement in underlying safety over many years, these events remind us that we have more work to do," Perkins said in a separate statement.