Bunnings has revealed $6 million more a year is spent on tactical security in Victoria a the state moves to crackdown on vile attacks on retail workers. Major retailers have decried the level of theft and threatening behaviour faced by their staff.
Westfarmers — the parent company of Bunnings and Kmart — reported 70 per cent of retailers reporting an increase in customer theft. Research from the Australian Retail Association found than half of retailers experience physical abuse every month over 12 months.
Bunnings Managing Director, Michael Schneider, previously told Yahoo News “no one should be subjected to abuse, threats or physical violence simply for doing their job or going about their day”.
Victoria followed through on a promise made in May to create an an offence for people who assault or threaten to assault workers in shops, restaurants, bars, cafes, shopping centres, taxis and Ubers on Friday.
Schneider said he hoped it would be a “circuit breaker” to protect workers, as similar legislation does in South Australia, New South Wales Western Australia and the Australia Capital Territory.
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Bunnings CEO Michael Schneider has demanded action to protect workers. Source: Linkedin/Michael Schneider
“We’re getting there in the end,” he told AAP.
“We’re spending half a million dollars a month on tactical security guards in Victoria, $6 million a year that we are not spending in those states.”
Violent and aggressive incidents at Bunnings stores doubled nationally in the last financial year, but but tripled in Victoria.
One individual wielding an extendable baton had allegedly committed 30 offences in Bunnings, threatening both staff and customers.
“There’s been a shift from just sticking a screwdriver up the back of your jumper and walking out of the store to bringing a weapon, using a weapon, threatening our team,” Schneider said.
And it’s not just Bunnings.
The issue became so significant for Ritchies IGA that CEO Fred Harrison has considered shutting shops in several Victorian states.
Big W worker Tammy said there had been a “massive uptick” in offences in her Melbourne store.
“I have been kicked, I have been spat at, I have been punched in the past,” the retail worker of 25 years told AAP.
“It’s a constant and we’re one of the quieter stores.
“It’s just snowballing this violence, particularly coming up to the Christmas period now.”
New legislation to protect retail workers
Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan prosed a bill to tackle staff harassment on Friday.
Those found to have harassed or abused staff could face up to five years’ imprisonment.
Perpetrators of lower-level assaults, including verbal tirades using obscene language, could face six months jail.
While ram raids would be recognised as aggravated burglary, with a penalty of up to 25 years behind bars.
Retail crime has surged in the last two years. Source: 7News & Bunnings
It follows similar rules to the ACT, which prohibits people who acted violently towards staff from entering the premises for up to 12 months.
The Premier said the worker protection consultation group legislation would be introduced in April next year and aimed to protect staff at work.
“There is a difference between the customer from hell and the customer who harms – retail workers know it and these laws nail it,” she said.
“I worked at a supermarket and I know what it was like.”
Facial recognition controversy
Bunnings has stood firm that facial recognition cameras in stores would be a good solution in tackling a crime wave sweeping the country.
The company maintains its stance despite the hardware chain previously being found to have violated Aussies’ privacy with its CCTV system.
Last year, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) announced Bunnings had breached shoppers’ rights by storing sensitive information captured by cameras at stores between 2018 and 2021.
Earlier this year, Robert Scott, the CEO of parent company Wesfarmers, said the hardware chain would consider looking at facial recognition technology again.
Schneider backed this.
“Alongside a range of tools including security guards, team safety cameras and training, we believe the responsible use of facial recognition technology can be an important tool to help keep teams and customers safe,” he told Yahoo News.
Security, risk and communications expert Scott Taylor told Yahoo News offenders were becoming “directly more brazen”, with the spike in aggression seen across the retail, education and healthcare sectors.
He warned that retailers were approaching a particularly dangerous time of year — Christmas.
Scott slammed the privacy commissioner findings on facial recognition as “completely out of touch” and said many people misunderstood how the technology worked.
“People think it’s like Mission Impossible, that the camera takes a photo of your face and it matches against a stored image of your face and that’s what is getting stored. It’s not,” he said.
“It stores data, the distance between your eyes is a number.
The distance between your eyes and nose is a number. Same as your mouth.
“It converts the photos into a number, and then it’s only the people that are repeat offenders that get registered in a database.”
A Yahoo News poll of more than 3,700 readers found 69 per cent of people thought facial recognition was an acceptable safety tool, while 22 per cent said it was “inappropriate”.
Scott said store layouts with compromised visibility and the introduction of technology like self-serve checkouts made staff more vulnerable.
“Anonymity breeds bravado,” he said.
“People think, ‘hey, less people around, less chance of getting caught’.
“It needs to be supported by the right tech, and some of that includes facial recognition technology.”
With AAP
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