As Safety Demands Action Week kicks off of this week, the union representing retail and fast food workers will be present in stores across the country to empower workers to stand up against customer abuse by reporting all incidents and safety breaches at work.
SDA National Secretary Gerard Dwyer said, “The national Safety Demands Action Week is an important opportunity for retail and fast food workers to be reminded about their rights at work and what to do if their workplace is unsafe.”
“The focus for our 2018 safety week comes after we’ve seen unacceptable amounts of customer abuse thrown at checkout workers because of the plastic bag ban rollout.”
“The fact that 85% of retail workers have experienced customer abuse is completely unacceptable and everyone has a role to play in ensuring that retail and fast food workers can be and feel safe at work.”
“Reporting incidents is a critical step in developing better protections for workers against abusive or violent customers. Our Safety Demands Action Week aims to empower retail workers to report incidents and stand up for their rights at work.”
The SDA’s No One Deserves a Serve campaign was launched last year in a national effort to tackle customer abuse that retail and fast food workers experience. As part of this effort, the SDA recently launched the Don’t Bag Retail Staff campaign, and media assets can be viewed here.
“While the most important factor in protecting workers is for shoppers to change their behaviours and show respect to retail and fast food workers, we also think it’s important to remind workers that being abused is not part of the job and that they must report all incidents so that better protections against abuse can be implemented.
“For retail and fast food workers, customer abuse can severely impact their physical and psychological health and it cannot continue. Everyone has the right to a safe work environment.” Mr Dwyer said.
Media Contact: Darren Rodrigo, 0414 783 405
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