‘Devastating’: Retail workers swap name tags to avoid harassment

Anna Patty
October 29, 2019

The Age

Retail workers are swapping name tags with colleagues to avoid harassment by customers as employers fear staff will walk off the job because of growing threats to their safety.

Nyakim Nyuon, 21, who has worked in the fast food industry for three years, said she has been harassed by customers who have tried to film her at work. She said her co-workers have swapped name tags after a customer stalked a colleague.

“She ended up putting a fake name on her name tag,” Ms Nyuon said. “I’ve had customers filming me without my consent and being flirtatious in a gross way.”

The Human Rights Commission (HRC) on Tuesday released findings of a national survey of 3413 retail, fast food and warehousing workers which found 39 per cent had experienced sexual harassment in the past five years and sexually explicit comments or unwelcome advancements on social media.

One anonymous respondent said: “Wearing a badge with our name on it makes customers and sexual predators feel comfortable enough to harass us under the guise of friendliness. It also allows them to think that because they know your name they are entitled to other personal information about you and to touch you. Wearing a name badge also makes it incredibly easy for those same predators to go home and look us up online and then harass us from the comfort of their homes.”

Australian Retailers Association executive director, Russell Zimmerman, said retailers were concerned about a rising incidence of harassment and verbal abuse toward staff.

“It’s just getting to a point where if we are not careful, staff will be saying I don’t want to work in the retail industry any more,” he said. “… we are a big employer and this becoming a big concern. We employ 1.2 million people, 10 per cent of the working population and we want workers to feel happy.”

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins said the HRC had discovered retail and hospitality staff were being harassed on social media by customers who had seen their name tags.

“I don’t think it was ever any employer’s intention for these name badges to open the way for face-to-face and online harassment, but our report tells us this is happening,” she said.

Selissa Damor, 20, who has worked in retail in Melbourne since she was 16, said she has felt scared after being contacted by customers.

“I’ve had customers message me outside of work on social media because they’ve seen my name tag,” she said.

“I’ve had them try to call me and contact my family. They tried to message my younger brother who is still in school because I was ignoring their messages.”

Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) national assistant secretary Julia Fox said sexual harassment in the workplace “is at a critical level”.

“The fact that some workers are resorting to swapping name tags in an effort to try and protect themselves from sexual harassment is devastating,” she said.

Industry groups representing Australian scientists will also release a national report on Wednesday which shows 40 per cent of employees had experienced gender bias or discrimination at least once in their careers.