Aggressive and violent customers could be barred from supermarket chains and shopping centres under sweeping South Australian laws that have come into effect this week.
Josh Peak , which has long campaigned for the reforms, said retail workers deserved to feel safe at work.
He said since the legislation came into effect, Woolworths had made four applications for orders, which would now go before a court to be determined.
"Knowing that someone, who's already been in there abused or indeed assaulted you, can just walk in at any moment is a situation we don't think is right," Mr Peak said. ABC News: Daniel TaylorRetail worker Janine Hall told a press conference that two of her colleagues, one of whom was conducting a bag check, were attacked by customers.
"Two of our girls have been assaulted by customers just doing their jobs, unfortunately they were coward punches from behind," she said. Ms Hall said she witnessed customer abuse daily and hoped the new laws would make people stop to think about the consequences. South Australian hospitality business Hurley Hotel Group managing director Peter Hurley said he was glad the issue was being taken seriously.
"Our people, particularly in our bottle shops, are threatened every single week by someone threatening to come near and 'I'll smash this bottle over your effing head,'" he told 891 ABC Adelaide on Thursday morning. "We have lost people because they fear for their life, and so theoretically ought to make it easier for us to retain staff.
" He previously spoke out about how his bottle shops were regularly robbed, prompting him to consider arming his staff with pepper spray and using water pistols with dye to help police identify offenders. Mr Hurley said he hoped the legislation meant that violent incidents at venues would get more police attention.
"I'm not sure whether it will be effective, but the one thing that does give it some chance of being effective is that the police will at least be more motivated to track these people down and to charge them if they know it will end up in a custodial sentence instead of just being a slap on the wrist," he said. Supermarket worker Kirsty Lithgow, who stood alongside the SDA in the press conference, said she had been yelled at by shoppers "because we don't have the stock they want".
"I have heard that we have security guards had fire extinguishers thrown at them, being bitten; more recently I've had a colleague almost spat on," she said. "There are days I don't want to go to work, like 'am I going to be abused today? Am I going to get yelled at? Am I going to hear from the other side of the store other teammates of mine getting abused?
' "With these new protections it's giving retail workers some power back to be able to say to customers, 'no we're not going to tolerate this behaviour'. " Mr Maher said similar laws were in place in the ACT, while New South Wales, Queensland and WA were following suit.
Workers Union Abuse Retail Hospitality Violence Assault Police Kyam Maher Josh Peak Peter Hurley Pubs Bigw Woolworths
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