As of May 2026, employers, HSRs, and unions, can apply to have repeatedly abusive and aggressive customers banned from re-entering your workplaces under a Workplace Protection Order.
These laws are a massive win for SDA members and are a crucial step towards creating safer workplaces for all South Australian retail workers.
We’re proud to have advocated for this crucial measure to keep workers safe.
How will this work?
Under the Workplace Protection Order scheme, employers, shopping centres, and unions can seek an Order to ban customers who do the wrong thing for up to 12 months.
The new laws also give Health and Safety Representatives (HSRs) the power to act, empowering workers to take action. This is a 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.
We are engaging with major employers to ensure they understand and make use of this scheme to keep their workforce safe. If you have any questions about these laws, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
We’re proud to have fought for these laws and worked with the Malinauskas Government to deliver these laws.
Over the past four years, the Malinauskas Government has delivered a number of improvements to your workplace safety:
- Stronger penalties for assaulting retail and fast-food workers
- The toughest knife laws in the country to prevent knife-related violence
- New powers for police to conduct wanding searches, which are now in place at 11 shopping precincts
Earlier this year, Premier Peter Malinauskas also announced plans to further improve workplace safety. This includes stronger training standards for security guards and, in major shopping centres, minimum security guard numbers and mandatory workplace safety plans.
Safety is union business and we’ll always fight to ensure all workers are provided with a safe workplace.
What you need to know about Workplace Protection Orders
In South Australia, criminal trespass only applied for 24 hours which means if customers who do the wrong thing and are banned return after 24 hours, there is nothing police or the courts can do about it.
The Workplace Protection Order plan means for the first time, customers who are banned and have a Workplace Protect Order placed on them are committing a criminal offence if they return to the workplace.
Workplace Protection Orders can also be sought by more than just employers and can last for up to 12 months.
This legislation will provide the power to seek to ban abusive customers if they engage in personal violence in the workplace.
Personal violence includes:
- physical violence or abuse
- sexual violence or abuse
- threatening behaviour
- stalking
- harassing, intimidating or offensive behaviour
- damage of property that causes reasonable fear to a person at the workplace.
Employers, shopping centres, unions and Health and Safety Representatives will be able to apply for an Order to ban an abusive customer.
Under the scheme, employers, shopping centres, unions and Health and Safety Reps are able apply to the Magistrates Court or Youth Court to impose an Order against individuals who have engaged in personal violence in relation to a workplace and may engage in future violent behaviour in relation to that business premises.
If an Order is granted, it would bar them from entering the workplace for up to 12 months.
People who breach the terms of a Workplace Protection Order could face penalties of up to 2 years imprisonment for a non-aggravated breach and 5 years for an aggravated breach.