Workplace violence – Retail

Scope

Workers in retail face significant risks of workplace violence. Many factors contribute to this risk, including working directly with a wide variety of people during all hours of the day or night, or who may be under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Working alone or in isolated areas, as well as the task of exchanging money also contribute to the potential for violence for retail workers.

Regulatory citations

• General Duty Clause of the OSH Act 5(a)(1)

Key definitions

• Muggings: Aggravated assaults, usually conducted by surprise and with intent to rob.
• Physical assaults: Attacks ranging from slapping and beating to rape, homicide, and the use of weapons such as firearms, bombs, or knives.
• Threats: Expressions of intent to cause harm, including verbal threats, threatening body language, and written threats.
• Workplace violence: NIOSH defines workplace violence as violent acts (including physical assaults and threats of assaults) directed toward persons at work or on duty.
  • Type 1—Criminal Intent: Violent acts by people who enter the workplace to commit a robbery or other crime—or current or former employees who enter the workplace with the intent to commit a crime.
  • Type 2—Customer/Client/Patients: Violence directed at employees by customers, clients, patients, students, inmates or any others to whom the employer provides a service.
  • Type 3—Co-worker: Violence against co-workers, supervisors, or managers by a current or former employee, supervisor, or manager.
  • Type 4—Personal: Violence in the workplace by someone who does not work there, but who is known to, or has a personal relationship with, an employee.

Summary of requirements

While OSHA does not have specific requirement, the agency expects retail employers to keep employers safe. Recommendations include:

• Assess the risk. The risk factors for violence vary from situation to situation depending on location, size, and retail operation type. Common risk factors include the following:
  • Maintaining large quantities of cash without the use of drop safes
  • Working alone
  • Poor environmental design
  • Inadequate security
  • Lack of staff training and policies for preventing and managing crises with potentially volatile customers
  • Drug and alcohol abuse
  • Access to firearms
  • Unrestricted movement of the public
  • Poorly lit corridors, rooms, parking lots, and other areas
• Develop a safety and health program. To prevent violence in retail operations, employers should develop a safety and health program that includes management commitment, employee participation, hazard identification, safety and health training, and hazard prevention, control, and reporting. Employers should evaluate this program periodically.
• Develop a procedure for employees to report concerns.
• Use engineering controls as feasible. These controls can include: developing emergency signaling, alarms, and monitoring systems; installing security devices such as metal detectors to prevent armed persons from entering the facility; installing other security devices such as cameras and good lighting in hallways; providing security escorts to the parking lots at night; placing curved mirrors at hallway intersections or concealed areas; providing staff restrooms and emergency exits; installing enclosed cashier stations, deep service counters or bullet-resistant and shatterproof glass enclosures in reception or cashier areas; and arranging furniture and other objects to minimize their use as weapons.
• Use administrative controls. These can include: Designing staffing patterns to prevent personnel from working alone; restricting the movement of the public behind cashier stations; and developing a system for alerting security personnel when violence is threatened.
• Train workers: Conduct mandatory training for employees to learn, at a minimum, the following items: (a) How to recognize the earliest stages of a possible assault; (b) How to avoid or mitigate potential violent encounters (including some words that non-English speakers may use to help de-escalate an assault; (c) How to seek refuge/assistance if violence appears imminent; and (d) How to use restraint and/or release techniques.
• Establish a comprehensive program of medical and psychological counseling and debriefing for employees experiencing or witnessing assaults and other violent incidents.
• Provide reliable means of communication to employees who may need to summon assistance. One possible means of communication is the use of two-way radios.