FIRST Union General Secretary, Dennis Maga, says the National Government’s intention to introduce legislation to encourage retail workers to police retail crime on behalf of employers is a "disastrously daft" policy that would put low-paid workers at an increased risk of violence and legal action, all to make up for the Government’s cuts to public services and their lack of ideas.

"The National Party and their $3.6m advisory group have decided that the best way to deal with increased retail crime is apparently to treat retail workers like the state’s free cops," said Mr Maga.

"The Government’s message to employers is that retail workers still aren’t worth a living wage but they should now put their lives on the line to protect an employer’s bottom line."

"What’s especially galling is that this kind of half-baked encouragement of US-style vigilantism is only being considered to make up for the coalition Government’s underinvestment in public services like police and their inability to require employers to maintain safe security standards."

"Retail workers are already systematically underpaid, concerned about their futures, and worried about going to work against a backdrop of increasing violence and abuse in their workplaces."

"You do not solve that problem, or the problem of retail crime, by making retail workers responsible for personally policing theft in stores - you make the prospect of working in these jobs even less appealing."

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"A policy like this could open workers up to legal issues, to a greater risk of injury and death, and will almost certainly be put forward without a word spoken about the low wages workers earn while they effectively become the state’s loss prevention team."

"Workers are not trained to be police detectives, and it’s extremely unlikely that the Government will front up a single dollar to provide any kind of training to execute the proposed tasks."

Mr Maga said that the Government’s advisory group on retail crime had not consulted FIRST Union - the union for retail workers - during their deliberations and were fixated on appearances and soundbites, not substance or evidence. "We could have told them that retail workers would not see this as any kind of solution."

"The Government wants to be tough on crime but they’re also being tough on logic and tough on taste with this ridiculous policy."

"It’s an extremely foolish idea that sets a dangerous precedent and represents a dereliction of duty by the state in dealing with the causes and effects of violence and abuse in New Zealand’s workplaces."

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