Staff searches at work

[Meopham]

Dd has just got back from her job she started a couple of weeks ago. They have random staff searches there, and I was a bit taken aback about it! Who else works in a shop, and has to be searched?

When I worked at a supermarket as a teen / young adult, it was common for all staff searches and also random spot searches as well.

Undoing the waistband sounded a bit much, until you said it was a jeweller. If she's signed the contract then she can't moan, surely.

I used to work in a bar where fiddling was rife, the girls used to hide money in their tights. I was only 18, first pub job, far too scared to do it.

Common practice in some places - we have to press a button, and if it shows red, security searches. For us it’s same rules for everybody, higher management gets searches as well as cleaners, kitchen staff etc. No exceptions, otherwise insurance would become invalid (security is external as well, so no conflict of interest).

I thought you had to have a license to search someone? You can't have random people no matter what store bought uniform they wear being able to search people. What if, when searching for potentially stolen goods from a shop, they come across drugs or the illegal items? What if they step beyond boundaries or target people racially?! I'm off to Google this!

Believe me, its necessary. When I was a teenager I had a friend who worked in a club on the bar. She would short change drunk customers so they would hand over a £20 note and she would give them back the change for a tenner and she would pocket the difference.

They had lots of complaints so the management started doing random searches. She used to hide the rolled up notes inside herself in a condom.

Many years ago i was a Christmas temp for a now defunct electrical retailer.

They did bag searches every night BUT didnt care so much about the staffs property as they provided lockers..........that didnt lock. As i finished up one night two days before Christmas i went into the staff room and found my bag and its contents strewn all over the staff room floor. The zip compartments in my bag including where i kept my flat keys had been opened . I complained but was told it was ok as nothing went missing.

i then said well i will have to carry my bag around with me while im working then After that it was stored in the cash office.

Fucking hypocrites.

I work in a industry where searches are expected. Our contract states searched are a mandatory part of the job. However, if they want to search under our clothes they have to have good reason. I'd raise a complaint, if that were me. Way outta line expecting her to open her trousers.

I work in a jewellers and we have to be searched, bags searched and shoes off after every shift. Always have been.

Worked at a big telecoms call centre. Security randomly searched the boots of staff's vehicles when leaving

Eh? Would love to know which company that was. I worked in one for 10 years and there were never searches, what did they think you were stealing, headsets and computers or chairs?

Of course yours could have been different, but in ours that’s all there were.

There were test mobile phones and laptops etc, but not many and they had to be signed in and out (all info and emulators for handsets and devices were on the system) and no customer cash as they made payments on to the system through debit/credit cards, and if anyone was stupid enough to steal customer card info that could really easily be traced back to them.

Another one for Tesco doing this, mostly it’s to check you’ve got no money on you. You aren’t allowed staff discount cards or change or anything, no car keys in case you use them against a customer (I know) and yep they make you take your shoes off. It’s just policy.

Having worked in retail I know it was written in my contract that they could search me. However nobody ever was.

Ide be more horrified at someone seeing the contents my handbag

I worked in Debenhams 15 years ago. Bag searches were occasionally done, but it was very cursory. Literally just a glance.