Legislation has passed the South Australian Parliament to allow for repeatedly abusive and aggressive customers to be banned from returning to your workplace for up to 12 months.
This is a major breakthrough for retail workers’ safety.
We have been advocating for reform for over 10 years and we have never stopped fighting. Now these powers have finally been delivered because of – and for – SDA members.
Thanks to SDA, South Australia is leading the way in keeping retail workers safe.
South Australia is now the first state in the country to implement these strong and enforceable laws.
These laws are modelled off laws operating in the ACT, however, South Australia’s scheme is more comprehensive – allowing employers, shopping centres, unions and workers to seek an Order, and enabling Orders to apply across multiple workplaces.
We are proud to have worked with the Malinauskas Labor Government to get this done.
🤔 What’s changing?
Currently, trespass laws only allow businesses to ban customers for 24 hours.
Under the Workplace Protection Order scheme, employers, shopping centres, and unions will be able to seek an Order to ban customers who do the wrong thing for up to 12 months.
The new laws will also give Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) the power to act, empowering workers to take action.
This is crucial aspect of these laws – especially if your employer isn’t taking steps to ban customers who repeatedly enter your workplace and do the wrong thing.
⏰ When will this take effect?
The Workplace Protection Order scheme will be implemented in the coming months.
Before they come in, we will be engaging with all major employers to ensure they understand and make use of this scheme to keep their workforce safe.
