Law, duties and violence prevention programs

Robbery and customer aggression are not just bad luck. In both countries, the law treats violence from the public as a workplace hazard that employers must assess and control, the same way they must deal with wet floors or unguarded machines. This lesson explains the main legal duties that apply to stores, the parts of a violence prevention program, and the roles of the employer, supervisors, workers and the safety committee. HSE-108 covers violence and harassment law in depth for every kind of workplace; here we focus on what it means for a store like Northfield Market.

The general duty

Every province and territory has an occupational health and safety act that requires employers to take every reasonable precaution to protect the health and safety of workers. That general duty applies to violence from customers and members of the public even where no specific rule names it. On top of the general duty, most provinces now have specific violence rules. They differ in detail, but the core pattern is the same: assess the risk, put controls and procedures in place, inform and train workers, and respond to incidents.

The rules where Northfield operates

British Columbia's Occupational Health and Safety Regulation has a set of violence sections in Part 4. Section 4.27 defines violence for those sections as the attempted or actual exercise of physical force by a person other than a worker that can cause injury, including threatening statements or behaviour that give a worker reasonable cause to believe they are at risk of injury. Section 4.28 requires a risk assessment wherever a risk of injury from violence arising out of employment may be present, taking into account previous experience at the workplace, experience in similar workplaces and the location and circumstances of the work. Section 4.29 requires procedures and policies to eliminate the risk or, where that is not possible, to minimize it. Section 4.30 requires the employer to inform workers about the nature and extent of the risk and to instruct them in recognizing it, the procedures and controls in place, how to respond and how to report. Section 4.31 requires that workers who report injury or adverse symptoms from violence be advised to consult a physician of their choice.

Reporting and investigation follow the Workers Compensation Act. Employers must do a preliminary investigation as soon as possible after an incident that injures a worker or could have, and a full investigation with a report to WorkSafeBC within 30 days. Bullying and harassment are covered by separate WorkSafeBC policies that require employers to have a policy, procedures for reporting and investigating, and training. Late-night retail premises have additional working alone rules, known as Grant's Law after Grant De Patie, a 24-year-old gas station attendant killed in Maple Ridge in 2005. HSE-352 covers those rules in detail.

Other examples worth knowing

Rules elsewhere show the range of approaches and are useful for stores that operate in more than one place.

• Ontario: Bill 168, in force since 2010, amended the Occupational Health and Safety Act to require employers to have workplace violence and harassment policies, assess the risk of workplace violence, develop a program to control it, and provide information about a person with a history of violent behaviour where workers are likely to encounter that person. Later amendments strengthened the harassment duties.
• Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and other provinces: all have violence and harassment requirements built around hazard assessment, prevention plans, training and incident response, with details that differ.
• Federally regulated workplaces: the Canada Labour Code and its Work Place Harassment and Violence Prevention Regulations (2021) apply to banks, airports and similar workplaces, not to most stores, but they are a well-developed model.
• Criminal law: section 217.1 of the Criminal Code makes it a duty for anyone who directs work to take reasonable steps to prevent bodily harm to workers. HSE-108 explains how it applies.

The parts of a violence prevention program

Whatever the jurisdiction, a good program for a store has the same building blocks. HSE-108 describes them for workplaces in general. In retail they look like this:

Hierarchy of controls applied to violence

The hierarchy of controls used for physical hazards also works for violence, with some adjustments. Elimination might mean not handling cash at a particular desk, or not opening a stand-alone kiosk late at night. Substitution might mean switching to cashless payment at self-checkouts or selling high-value items from locked cases. Engineering controls include store layout, sightlines, lighting, barriers, time-delay safes, cameras and alarm systems. Administrative controls include staffing levels, cash limits, procedures for refusals and returns, opening and closing routines and training. Personal protective equipment has a small role in retail; for security staff it may include protective vests or gloves, but for most store workers the main personal control is a way to call for help quickly, such as a radio, a personal alarm or a silent response button.

As with other hazards, controls higher up the list are more reliable because they do not depend on a worker doing the right thing under stress. Training in de-escalation is valuable, but it works best when the store design and procedures have already reduced the number of tense situations workers face.

Roles and responsibilities

The employer is responsible for the program: assessing risk, providing controls and training, keeping records and making sure incidents are followed up. Supervisors put the program into practice on each shift. They make sure staffing and cash limits are followed, back up workers in difficult interactions, take reports seriously, make sure injured or shaken workers get care, and pass information up the chain. Workers follow procedures, report incidents and concerns, take part in training and use the tools provided, such as alarms and radios. They also have the right to refuse work they reasonably believe is dangerous, which can include being sent alone to deal with a threatening person.

The joint health and safety committee (or worker representative in a smaller workplace) takes part in risk assessments, reviews incident reports and investigations, and recommends improvements. In British Columbia, workplaces with 20 or more workers need a committee and those with 10 to 19 need a representative, and the committee should see violence incident reports along with other injury reports.

Information about people with a history of violence

Some laws require employers to tell workers about a person with a known history of violence whom they are likely to meet at work, sharing only the information needed to protect them. In a store this might be a customer who has been banned after assaulting a worker, or a person subject to a no-trespass notice. A short, private briefing for affected staff, with a description and what to do if the person returns, meets the need without broadcasting personal information. Privacy law still applies, so the store should share only what workers need to stay safe and keep records secure.

A simple program gap check

A quick way to see where a store stands is to score each program element on a simple scale and look for the gaps. The program below does that for Northfield using the elements in the table. Scores are Marco's judgment from his first review: 0 means missing, 1 partly in place and 2 fully in place.

# Violence prevention program gap check for Northfield Market (Kamloops).
# Scores: 0 = missing, 1 = partly in place, 2 = fully in place (Marco's first review).
elements = {
    "Written policy (s. 4.29)": 2,
    "Risk assessment (s. 4.28)": 1,
    "Procedures and controls (s. 4.29)": 1,
    "Worker instruction (s. 4.30)": 1,
    "Advice to see a physician (s. 4.31)": 0,
    "Reporting and investigation (WCA)": 1,
    "Support after incidents": 1,
    "Committee review and annual review": 0,
}
total = sum(elements.values()); best = 2 * len(elements)
print(f"Program score: {total} of {best} ({100 * total / best:.0f}%)")
for name, s in sorted(elements.items(), key=lambda kv: kv[1]):
    flag = "GAP" if s == 0 else ("partial" if s == 1 else "ok")
    print(f"  {s}  {flag:<7} {name}")
gaps = [n for n, s in elements.items() if s == 0]
print("Fix first:", "; ".join(gaps))

Program score: 7 of 16 (44%)
  0  GAP     Advice to see a physician (s. 4.31)
  0  GAP     Committee review and annual review
  1  partial Risk assessment (s. 4.28)
  1  partial Procedures and controls (s. 4.29)
  1  partial Worker instruction (s. 4.30)
  1  partial Reporting and investigation (WCA)
  1  partial Support after incidents
  2  ok      Written policy (s. 4.29)
Fix first: Advice to see a physician (s. 4.31); Committee review and annual review

Northfield scores about half. It has a policy, but the risk assessment is out of date, procedures exist only for some desks, training is inconsistent, injured workers are not routinely advised to see a doctor, and nobody reviews the program as a whole. The gaps are typical. Many stores have a policy written by head office but little behind it at the store level. The rest of this course fills those gaps one at a time.

For supervisors: what the law expects of you on a shift

You do not need to memorize section numbers. You do need to know that violence is a recognized hazard in your store, that procedures exist for robbery, refusals and aggressive customers, and that you are expected to follow them and make sure your team does. On each shift, check staffing against the plan, check that cash limits are being followed, know where the alarms are, back up workers who are dealing with difficult customers, and take every report seriously. If a worker is hurt or badly shaken, make sure they get care and that the incident is reported and investigated.