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?

Legally not required to wear them. I think because it’s your choice to go shopping but the staff don’t have that choice they have to go to work. I work for 9 hours a day in a shop it would be awful to wear one for that long.

But people who work in dusty environments have always had to wear them. Hospital staff have to wear them. Welders wear them. My son who works at KFC has been wearing them for months and he often does 10 hour shifts in an environment that is much hotter than a shop. What's so special about retail staff that they can't manage what other people can?

I've just done a seven hour shift with most of my customers wearing masks.

Can I just put in a plea - if you are wearing a mask and the shop assistant asks you if you'd like a bag, don't just murmur 'no' into your mask. Speak UP fgs! Seven hours of saying 'pardon, excuse me' to people whose muttering I could normally lip read but the mask means that they are not only muttering but it's muffled muttering!

I mean I’ve been wearing a mask but today’s shift I had to take it off because I just couldn’t handle it, I’d done 7/10 hours of heavy lifting (25lb+) and staged off two anxiety attacks by sheer force of will and I just couldn’t take it anymore, so I can see the thought processes behind the government’s decision.

Performing manual labour in 33+ degree weather is heavy hot uniforms often with limited or no air con for 8/10/12+ is different to popping out to the shops for an hour etc.

I think people need to remember retail staff are simply following government guidance and haven’t actually done anything wrong here, besides I think retail staff have more than proved their worth over the last 5 months.

Exactly retail.staff have proved our worth and people need to remember that. We have worked from day 1 of the virus and putting up with stress, abuse and emotion. I've seen colleagues break down but customers dont see that.
Also people going on about NHS workers having to wear a mask,well that's part of there job treating sick people so is expected at times they wear a mask.
I doubt you see a hcp lugging a huge cage of heavy items about. And doing heavy lifting for 8 hours plus. So people saying about nhs workers wearing a mask for 12 hours plus is totally irrelevant.

I doubt you see a hcp lugging a huge cage of heavy items about. And doing heavy lifting for 8 hours plus. So people saying about nhs workers wearing a mask for 12 hours plus is totally irrelevant.

I'm afraid I don't see how that's relevant. Plenty of jobs are much more physical than retail and require a mask - lots of building jobs, welding, working in factories - they're all far more physically intense than retail and people doing their jobs often wear masks all year round.

I suspect with lockdown restrictions being paused and dialled back a bit, that soon the wearing of masks will be extended to shop workers anyway.

Very much doubt it shop workers will stay exempt.

@Vivana

Very much doubt it shop workers will stay exempt.

Why should they? If they're on the tills behind screens, fair enough, but otherwise they're just as vulnerable to the virus as everyone else. They spread it just as much as everyone else.

If customers can spread the virus and have to wear masks to prevent it spreading, shop workers should do the same. They manage it in every other country - why not here too?

It's silly and a daft exception to the rule that makes them "mandatory".

Shop workers have been managing infection control in their world for quite some time now. The "worried well" seem to need them to change for some reason. The government don't... hence one law for customers, not for staff.

Perhaps because there have been no major outbreaks attributed to a retail environment despite more and more people being out and about.

@BeyondMyWits

Shop workers have been managing infection control in their world for quite some time now. The "worried well" seem to need them to change for some reason. The government don't... hence one law for customers, not for staff.

Perhaps because there have been no major outbreaks attributed to a retail environment despite more and more people being out and about.

But you can use the same argument for masks in general.

Nobody had to wear masks in shops until a couple of weeks ago.

It is about managing risk.
There are many more people out and about.

The shop workers come across so many different people in their working day - so many that the 1 in 3000 (or whatever it is now) figure matters. Shop customers come across a mere handful of shop workers. Their risk is so much lower.

Why make things more difficult for people doing their job - shop workers' risk from having many more customers has increased (mitigated by customers wearing masks), customers risk from staff is still miniscule - customers main risk is from the increase in other customers (again mitigated by customers wearing masks).

Complaining about staff not wearing masks is just another deflection.

Because this rule in place is to protect shop workers remember.

Plus like a other pp has said we have managed very well with things we have in place at supermarkets and have done for months now.

You really have to ask?!

They would have to wear them ALL day! People are moaning about wearing them just to go into a shop yet they're expecting shop staff to wear them all fucking day. Ridiculous.

Also, note that everyone is worrying about us wearing masks for Covid - nobody is worried about us (or the general public) wearing masks during flu season. Or gloves to try to control Norovirus.

And yes, flu can kill. So, under certain circumstances, can Noro. It's like everyone has taken this Covid thing and gone off like rockets. We are pretty good at infection control, because we do it every day of every year.

Exactly it's just another excuse for people to moan at shop staff which is very pretty.

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.

We are fair game for everyone who believes themselves above us lowly retail workers.

I doubt you see a hcp lugging a huge cage of heavy items about. And doing heavy lifting for 8 hours plus.

HCPs have to provide personal care and transfer patients who often cannot walk or move at all-have you ever tried rolling, toileting or pat sliding a patient who cannot move? Healthcare can be very physically arduous. Added to which, moving patient beds, moving furniture from bay to bay, moving boxes of supplies, how do you think this is done? Healthcare workers!!!

Also people going on about NHS workers having to wear a mask,well that's part of there job treating sick people so is expected at times they wear a mask.

Well, not exactly. HCPs wear masks to protect themselves and to prevent the spread of infection, you know, like in times of severe respiratory virus pandemics. Most won't be 'treating sick people.' As I mentioned earlier, most HCPs did not wear them before the pandemic and are not genetically predisposed to wearing them and, even though HCPs do wear them routinely (now) at work, does not mean other (non-HCP) workers shouldn't.

@Anotherlovelybitofsquirrel

You really have to ask?!

They would have to wear them ALL day! People are moaning about wearing them just to go into a shop yet they're expecting shop staff to wear them all fucking day. Ridiculous.

Hundreds of other professions wear masks all day - what's so special about retail workers that means they can't?

And I have nothing against retail workers before I'm jumped on - I did it for ten years!

@vanillandhoney

what's so special about retail workers that means they can't?

They’re exempt that’s what special about them so how you feel about it doesn’t really matter!

Nothing is "so special". They/we have been doing this since day 1 of covid. Managing infection control measures and NOT having outbreaks related to retail. All they/we are doing is continuing - whilst being inundated with even more people. But that is not good enough for some people.

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.)

It is difficult for the hard of hearing, especially if they rely on lip reading. All staff in retail and hospitality are required to stay home if they show any symptoms.
If people spent more time being respond for themselves instead of picking at others it would help.
Keep your distance, wash your hands regularly and sanitise, limit facial touching.
The guidance for Wales does not require masks for retail / hospitality as they feel people are less likely to distance (False sense of security) and more likely to touch their faces.

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.)

That you know of. Unless there is widespread testing of retail workers, one can't know this. And I imagine testing is only if one is symptomatic. Asymptomatic transmission is estimated in 40% of cases.

www.nursingtimes.net/news/research-and-innovation/over-40-of-covid-19-infections-are-asymptomatic-suggests-study-01-07-2020/

[quote Cadent]@vanillandhoney

what's so special about retail workers that means they can't?

They’re exempt that’s what special about them so how you feel about it doesn’t really matter![/quote]
I know they're exempt, but my point is that the logic behind it is silly. People on here are arguing that it's too hard for retail workers to wear masks all day long, but loads of other professions seem to manage it - so what is it about retail work that means wearing one is so difficult?

And as for not spreading it - why are retail workers less likely to spread it than anyone else? If customers have to protect you by wearing a mask, shouldn't you have to do your bit to protect them?

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.