To think retail staff should be wearing masks too?

[cccro]

Sorry if this has already been posted.
Today I went to a few shops.
Wilkos -no staff wearing masks,yes screens at tills but staff at door and walking around aren't wearing masks.
Primark -no staff wearing masks
Superdrug -no staff wearing masks

What's the rule here?
Are sales assistants immune from catching covid?
I don't understand why they aren't wearing masks?

@Zaphodsotherhead

But we only have very very brief contact with the public in retail, generally. Brush past them in the shop, maybe answer a query for thirty seconds. Where we do spend more time face to face, ie the till, there is a perspex screen.

If the current thinking is still that you need to spend 15 minutes in close vicinity of someone (or to cough in their faces) to spread Covid, then nobody is likely to get it from an unmasked retail worker.

But by same argument, each member of the public is only likely to have very brief interactions with you as an individual. Certainly I don't ever spend 15 minutes in close contact with shop assistants when I go out.

So if your risk to them is minimal, why does it not work the other way around? That's what I don't get. Either both pose a risk or neither do, surely?

We are in a pharmacy retail environment and have all had the NHS antibody test. Not one of us was positive.

I am just puzzled as to why - when the only change is the number of customers increasing (hence the law for customers to wear masks) - you need shop staff, who have been serving everyone for months, to wear masks.

I don't - I will happily shop in my mask with bare faced shop staff - I am at no more risk - from them - than last month.

But you can spend more than 15 minutes in contact with other customers in the shop if you are all walking around together? Shops tend to be where social distancing breaks down and gaggles of people are in aisles together - so you are wearing masks to protect yourself from other customers and them from you. Not from the staff.

I have to wear a mask or a visor. I'm FOH so chose a visor because it makes communication easier. I'm also getting a lot of abuse because I'm asking people to put a face cover on. It's awful and I feel like quitting quite often. I was called a cunt and pushed yesterday by a man because he wanted to come in while not wearing a mask.

Why do people think shop workers need to wear masks? (when customers' increased risk is from other customers - there is no increased risk from staff who have always been there.)

I am sorry, I don't get your logic. Do you mean retail staff stay at their tills 24 hours and never meet anybody else (at home, on the way to work) who could pass the infection on to them, which they could then pass on to customers?

And do you also believe that just because they are staff, they cannot at any time get infected by one customer and pass it on to the next?

Well people do tend to regard shop workers as the lowest of the low, uneducated people who work in shops because that's the only job they can get.

They have higher status (and get paid more!) than KFC workers and KFC workers have to wear masks.

If the current thinking is still that you need to spend 15 minutes in close vicinity of someone (or to cough in their faces) to spread Covid, then nobody is likely to get it from an unmasked retail worker.

Well, no, it just means the risk is lower and you don't have to self-isolate (if you come into contact for

I am just puzzled as to why - when the only change is the number of customers increasing (hence the law for customers to wear masks) - you need shop staff, who have been serving everyone for months, to wear masks.

Because presumably you're also going out and about more as well as everything opens up again? So just as customers are at increased risk, you are as well?

I am sorry, I don't get your logic. Do you mean retail staff stay at their tills 24 hours and never meet anybody else (at home, on the way to work) who could pass the infection on to them, which they could then pass on to customers

No... not at all.

Last month bare faced staff served a few bare faced customers.

This month bare faced staff serve many, many more masked customers.

The risk, to customers from staff, has not changed from last month to this month.
The risk, to customers and staff, from the large increase in customer numbers has been relieved by the law requiring them to wear masks.

[quote FallingIguanas]@SomewhereEast there are others in that theatre environment (also wearing masks) whose pay will be akin to retail staff. The critical issue is about all of us taking responsibility to keep each other safe. Your arguments concerning pay and conditions are a straw man. [/quote]
Well said!

Plenty of staff will be on £9.89ph. Still an extremely physical job and where a mistake could cost someone their life.

I work for Greene King and it's company policy to wear a mask. 10, 12 hour shifts in one is hard but I feel it's safer to wear one. Customers don't have to though. Kind of other way round!

The risk, to customers from staff, has not changed from last month to this month.

That you know of. Only widespread testing of retail workers would confirm this. But rates are creeping up all over England. Definitely not saying retail is the cause (far from it!) but to prevent another UK-wide lockdown (can't afford another one)-masks, handwashing, and social distancing (where possible) for everyone (even retail) will have to be the way forward and, quite frankly, the govt needs to address this now. Oh, and testing, testing, testing.

news.sky.com/story/coronavirus-englands-rising-infection-rate-what-does-the-data-show-12040039

And if members of a public are standing around in the aisles chatting, then the staff member stacking the shelves behind them isn't going to be mysteriously immune to infection just because they've stacked those shelves before.

The risk, to customers from staff, has not changed from last month to this month.
The risk, to customers and staff, from the large increase in customer numbers has been relieved by the law requiring them to wear masks.

Well, as more and more of those customers are now also going elsewhere for work and other purposes, any infection they do pick up from a member of staff who has caught it from another customer is now likely to be transmitted to more people elsewhere.

That is, if you think the current death stats and Long Covid cases isn't enough.

The risk, to customers from staff, has not changed from last month to this month.

Yes it has because the staff will be doing more outside work, i.e. visiting family, going to pubs/restaurants, going to non essential shops that have now re-opened, maybe going on holiday, etc. The risk is a lot higher and will continue to rise as restrictions are relaxed.

The risk, to customers from staff, has not changed from last month to this month. The risk, to customers and staff, from the large increase in customer numbers has been relieved by the law requiring them to wear masks.

I would disagree that the risk from staff hasn't changed.

Lockdown is easing for everyone. So presumably staff are also going out and mixing more, seeing their family, maybe going to the gym or out to the pub after work for meals. There's every chance a staff member could be carrying the virus and spreading it about at work!

You can almost smell the whiff of contempt pouring through the screen about those lowly retail workers. It's interesting how they've been working the whole way through and there haven't been huge amounts of cases amongst staff when numbers were really high, but now they're the worst for not wearing them. Most are thankfully taking a reasonable approach of providing masks/visors for staff to wear, but not forcing them. Some will be exempt anyway as per the gov guidance, they don't deserve scorn just like the public who are exempt don't.

@Staplemaple

You can almost smell the whiff of contempt pouring through the screen about those lowly retail workers. It's interesting how they've been working the whole way through and there haven't been huge amounts of cases amongst staff when numbers were really high, but now they're the worst for not wearing them. Most are thankfully taking a reasonable approach of providing masks/visors for staff to wear, but not forcing them. Some will be exempt anyway as per the gov guidance, they don't deserve scorn just like the public who are exempt don't.

What contempt? I worked in retail for years, I have nothing but admiration for retail workers - it's a crap job at the best of times, let alone during a pandemic.

The argument of" they didn't wear them through the height of the pandemic" just doesn't work, though - customers didn't wear them then either! Everyone is out mixing a lot more now with the opening of shops, hairdressers, gyms, pubs and restaurants - therefore anyone going out is at increased risk, whether they're retail assistants, receptionists, customers or bar staff.

If customers now pose a greater risk, why don't retail staff? It's not like working in a shop puts you in a nice, safe bubble that means you can't carry the virus and spread it around.

You can almost smell the whiff of contempt pouring through the screen about those lowly retail workers.

I think this may be the fourth time on this thread I get to point out that my son who works at KFC has had to wear a mask since the start of the pandemic.

Are KFC workers somehow more exalted than retail staff? Do they look down on retail workers?

Or might it simply be that they can't see why one sector of customer-orientated workers make such a fuss over something they've accepted from the start?

KFC have perspex screens behind the counter, if KFC want their staff to wear masks that's up to them. They're lalso a barrier from the public.

Shop staff would probably get abuse from covigilantes the minute they take off their mask for a breather from stacking shelves etc.

And no, I don't work in retail. I have the luxury of being able to WFH and going into an air conditioned office if I want to with socially distanced desks and daily temperature checking. But that just makes me all the more sympathetic to retail staff.

You can almost smell the whiff of contempt pouring through the screen about those lowly retail workers.

Hardly contempt just because a person has a different opinion. As for not wearing masks at the start, that's all on the govt and their ill-planning and mixed messages, not the organisation, company nor worker.
If I go into a store and see a worker without a mask, I blame the govt. Not the worker who is just following the rules of their company.

As far as I can tell, no one on here views retail workers as 'lowly.' But if this is a race to the bottom, try cleaning up people's faeces and face abuse for a living!!

If customers now pose a greater risk, why don't retail staff

numbers. (statistics do not talk about individuals)

Risk is to do with statistics. 5 staff before... 5 staff now...
200 customers before... 2000 customers now.

Customers may have met say 2 staff and 20 customers before on their trip round the supermarket.
Staff may have met 100 customers.

Now - (same number of staff)- customers may still meet 2 staff but 200 customers now
Staff may meet 1000 customers.

Customers have increased, risk from customers has increased, customers wear masks. (when I am a customer I wear a mask as I am a part of the bigger hoard that the staff meet each day)

My maths is probably a bit wonky as I am not a statistician, but the principle is sound.

Shop staff would probably get abuse from covigilantes the minute they take off their mask for a breather from stacking shelves etc.

Don't agree with abuse of workers but anyone wanting a break from their mask is best to do so away from customers/patients etc. Defeats the purpose of mask wearing otherwise.

I hope all the people on here who are saying ‘i wore a mask for an hour and it got too much’ or similar, are not the same people who are demanding children wear them for 6 hours a day 5 days a week?

@corythatwas KFC arent enforcing it at all, their policy is:

"Provision of masks for team members who would like to wear them."

If a branch manager is insisting they wear them then that's up to them, just like in retail. Fast food outlets are also at risk of being closed again at any point, so they probably feel they have more of a need to make a point of being shown to do something.