Workers threatened with weapons as retail crime spikes
Retail workers at Bunnings and Kmart are threatened by customers more than 1,000 times a month, with many incidents involving weapons.
Parent company Wesfarmers, which also owns Target and Priceline Pharmacy, has revealed the extent of worsening retail crime rates.
CEO Rob Scott said incidents involving threats of serious harm at Bunnings increased by 66 percent, while at Kmart, incidents involving threats increased by 29 percent.
It had recorded 13,500 customers threatening staff in retail stores over 12 months, it told shareholders at the company’s annual general meeting on Thursday.
More than 1,000 of these cases involved physical attacks and hundreds of threats of serious harm, often with a weapon.
The company has increased security in high-risk areas, trained workers in de-escalation tactics and installed body-worn cameras.
Data showed a third of retail crime across Australia occurred in Victoria; This rate is 60 percent higher than other states.
Research from the Australian Retailers Association and the National Retailers Association found 79 per cent of Victorians are concerned about rising levels of crime, compared with 66 per cent in other states and territories.
“These are not issues that are just focused on Wesfarmers. These are wider community community issues,” Mr Scott said.
The conglomerate has shared information with its retail counterparts, governments and police as they play an important role in addressing the growing danger.
“We support sensible reforms, including tougher, nationally consistent penalties for violent retail crimes and a national conversation to ensure the controlled, responsible use of technology to remove known violent offenders from retail environments,” Mr Scott said.
There are laws in the ACT that allow judges to impose workplace protection orders banning people who abuse workers from going to certain stores for up to 12 months.
South Australia has also introduced similar legislation to parliament.
The NSW government has launched a police retail crime strategy that allows prosecutors to apply to prevent repeat offenders and violent offenders from re-entering retail premises with post-conviction space restriction orders.
The Victorian government says laws will soon prevent attacks and harassment against retail workers.
Wesfarmers achieved record net profit after tax of $2.7 billion and revenue of $46 billion, excluding major items, up 3.8 percent on the previous year.
Despite this, chairman Michael Chaney warned that business investment would be attracted if the Productivity Commission’s recommendation to add a five per cent cash flow tax on large businesses was accepted.
Mr Chaney said $43 billion (93 per cent) of Wesfarmers’ revenue went to other parties such as suppliers, team members, governments and society.
“This breakdown of our financial performance highlights the importance of large companies in our economy, a fact that is not well recognized,” he said.
Mr Chaney said a cash flow tax would make Australia’s tax regime “one of the most burdensome in the world” and drive investment overseas.
He warned this would threaten Australia’s productivity performance and said corporate and income tax levels were too high.
“Our political leaders seem reluctant to address this issue. It’s time to think about Australia’s long-term needs and stop worrying about near-term political risks,” he said.
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