Over the coming weeks, a new campaign will appear in shopping centres around Australia designed to combat retail crime.
The Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA), the National Retail Association (NRA), and the Shopping Centre Council of Australia (SCCA) joined forces for the campaign.
It’s a new version of the ‘no one deserves a serve’ campaign, which debuted in 2017. The latest rendition will appear on more than 3,000 screens in 150 locations from November until Christmas.
NRA CEO Lindsay Carroll encouraged retail employees to report all incidents of abuse, violence, and crime to the police.
“Retailers employ 1.3 million retail staff in Australia, and staff need to feel safe and protected in their workplace,” Carroll said.
“We as an industry are jointly calling for policy reforms to clearly demonstrate that any abuse towards retail employees will not be tolerated. It is critical we demonstrate to offenders that they ‘are not welcome’ if they intend to abuse, assault or harm anyone.”
Organisers predict the campaign will be seen more than 190 million times during the peak annual shopping period.
SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said customer abuse and violence is a serious workplace health and safety issue for retailer workers across Australia.
“Retail workers are under more stress and pressure during the Christmas season – we’re asking all shoppers not to take out their festive frustrations on the workers who are there to help make your shopping experience a pleasant one,” he said.
SCCA CEO Angus Nardi added that it was pleasing to see the retail industry united in the hunt for new approaches to reducing retail crime.
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