Teen slapped at work, what to do?

[Themadcleaner]

Hi, after some advice, particularly about an employers duty of care. Teen daughter was slapped at work by one of the joint owners, on the arm and reasonably hard because she started using the till without realising owner hadn't finished her transaction yet.
She came home really upset, which I can understand as in 30 years at work no employer has laid a finger on me. She told the assistant manager who she gets on well with and has been asked to go in later to talk about it with assistant manager and 2 x owners. I'd like to go in with her as she's under 18 and not great at standing up for herself. I hope they are planning to apologise properly and ensure it doesn't happen again. She likes the job and wants to stay until she finds another one. But other than calmly supporting her to factually say what happened what can I say?
I would think even slapping is assault? And her employers have a duty to protect her from that, rather than inflict it?!

Go with her, and don’t accept any BS excuses. They could have used words to stop her pressing the button too early, no need to make contact. Young new workers make mistakes, that’s life. Make it clear that there will be no discussion or explanations. A full apology and some compensation is needed or you take it further.

Report it to the police.

Definitely go with her, and refuse for the person who hit her to be present.

Your daughter should not want to go back to a job where she was hit.

I understand that filing a police report won’t likely result in prosecution so may not be worth the stress. That doesn’t mean you can sit by and let this go unchallenged.

Your daughter is still a child and needs your guidance right now. This is a situation that would be stressful and complicated for an experienced adult.

if it were a large company, I would suggest he be reported to Human Resources and would expect he would be fired. Since it is his company that isn’t going to happen. He could apologize and give her severance to help compensate her while she looks for a new job because she should not work there another day.

Her employer should not be slapping her. Nor should anyone be trying to minimise and excuse it by suggesting it may have been a tap. Neither is acceptable.

Yes, go with her and support her. Don't be fobbed off if they try to call it "just a joke" or a little tap. It was an assault, it crossed the line. I think your DD knows that, hence she came home so upset.

It shouldn't have happened. The very least you want is a proper apology and a promise that it won't happen again. I'd also be hoping for a disciplinary against the culprit, whether a joint owner or not.

Shops often have CCTV around the till area. Ask to see that. If anything shows up then ask for it to be immediately forwarded to you so that you can take it to the police.

OP nothing will come of this.
They will deny it.
They will not give you CCTV.
They will not engage with you.
Best thing to do is ask your daughter to leave asap and work somewhere reputable.

Surely this is illegal? WTF! I would report to police without delay.Young people need protecting not assaulting .I would not let her back there either

Honestly can no one else see this happening at their place of work? At ours community health care clinic it could happen more or less every week, usually over the last bit of home baked cake. Giggle - Tap - oi! I was saving that bit for me! Oops sorry I thought I was quick enough to get away with it. Chorus Oh but it's just so delicious. Back to work.
Don't call the Police.

I would also make a police report and no way would I be sending her back there to work and be assaulted again.

You say it’s her word against DD’s, but does their place of work have CCTV? Most businesses will have it, especially around tolls.

Melodramatic reaction.

If she was fiddling with the till when she wasn't supposed to I can easily see someone "slapping" their arm away.

Same way you would if someone was about to put their hand over a gas hob that's still hot.

Tills, that should say, not tolls.

@Themadcleaner it really doesn't matter where they are from originally they have broken the law. Relaxing the law ends up in Rotherham type situations.

I think to say she was slapped at work or 'assaulted' is being over dramatic and I believe the police have enough on their hands without reporting something like this.

WTF, you actually think it is in anyway okay to assault anyone, never mind a child, for making a mistake??? Would you be happy if you were the victim of an assault, in a situation like this?

I am gobsmacked, that anyone would minimise what happened to this child. 🤬

WFT?? Are you serious? It wasnt a life or death situation or there was absolutely no reason for the manager to make physical contact.

Presumably you're not all angrily slapping each other over cake? Totally different situation.

@FitAt50 how would you react if you were slapped by your boss?

If OP’s daughter wants to continue working there?? Come on… would you carry on working in a place where a mistake was dealt with by physical force (regardless of how hard). In my 28 years working I have never had an employer or colleague touch me…

Please OP show your daughter it’s more than OK to stand up for herself in the workplace and that she should not continue to work for a company/ person that treats her like that.

Wow. Not even remotely the same kind of situation, but nice try. 🙄

Unless the op's daughter is a complete fantasist who decided to make the whole story up, she was slapped at work.

Im not saying the police should make this a high priority but they make time to investigate more trivial crap than this .

Hi , as she's still classed as a child she has the right to be accompanied by an adult.

The Op's post makes it clear that that is not even remotely close to what happened here.
We're not talking about giggling collegues tapping each others hands for eating the last piece of cake were talking about a manager striking her subordinate in a moment of anger because she'd made a mistake. The slap was hard enough to sting.
I honestly cannot fatham some of the responses on here.

Call the police and talk to them about it.
Ask your daughter if there is CCTV in the shop that may have caught it.
Do not let her go to the meeting without you.

Ah, yes cultural differences are real

They may be but these owners have chosen to live in the UK and therefore regardless of cultural differences they need to obey the law here