AIBU to think staff shouldn’t be searched after work?

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My 16 year old son has got himself a little part time job at a discount clothes store, beginning with M. Pay is dreadful (£4 odd an hour,) job is mind numbing, but he’s sticking at to gain experience. I’m sat waiting to collect him at 9pm last night and I wondered what the delay was for 5 mins by the door.
I witnessed the manager searching all the bags of the staff leaving. My son didn’t have a bag, but still had to wait to be let out afterwards. He said this is standard practice each shift.
I am already disgusted by the pay, finding out he wasn’t paid for his induction and chasing 8 hours pay he’s not received, to now witness this! Utterly appalled that they would treat their staff this way.
I am trying To convince him to resign but he wants to find another part time job first.

Disgraceful way to treat staff. That would be any good-will out of the window.

I struggle to believe that most retail stock loss is perpetrated by store staff; the staff: customer ratio must be tiny. If the proportion of shop-lifters in each group is the same, then surely most of the stock loss is going out in the bags of the customers?

It is an eye opener and a reality check when your teens start working if you have no experience of different job sectors..

Like @Oysterbabe I used to work at House of Fraser & this was standard practice (although it was random - we had to press a button on the way out).

It does seem a bit over the top but presumably it’s based on evidence that some staff nick things.

He’s applied for several other jobs, waiting to hear back. They all pay around double what his pay currently is! I didn’t realise how much they took the piss until her started looking around. He was so pleased to be offered the job, he jumped at it.
Poor kids are getting so disheartened, there are dozens going for every job.

I was a retail manager in the 80s for several big companies. Caught many staff lifting.....clothes under their own clothes, stockroom staff chucking binbags of clothes out of back windows to their accomplices, false bottoms in large handbags.

Completely standard. I worked in a head office function for a big retailer but we were based in the store and we were searched too, so it’s not just the floor staff. As a PP said, the stat is something like 90% of all stock loss is from staff stealing / undercharging mates etc. It’s not a nice feeling, but it’s nothing personal!

This is very true, DD started at Next just after her 16th birthday and I think was paid £6.90 an hour from the start.

They are allowed to search his bag, but I think it has to be done on paid time (as it pushes his pay to below minimum wage)
He definitely should have been paid for training.
checkyourpay.campaign.gov.uk/

Get a new job, report to HMRC.

We used to press a button on the way out next to the security station. If it was green you walked, red your bag/s were searched.

When I worked at sainsburys, there would be a database that would highlight if you needed searching that week or not.

It wasn’t hard. Literally just pull your pockets out to show you only had a pen or your phone, and back to work you went.

Maybe you need to be advising the security higher ups in all the retailers then if your take on the situation is so much better than thiers. What experience do you have in that sector?

Definitely standard, and not only in retail.
Because thieves are gonna thieve.
During my student Christmas job back in the day (big store, Manchester) the woman who emptied the cash from the tills was marched off the premises one day- she'd been stealing money for months.

It is normal practice

However - what did he do on the induction day? If he followed a staff member they don’t have to pay if he did work - stock rotating tills etc then legally they have to pay him.

Have a look into it and don’t accept what they say.

DD went to do some unpaid work experience, arranged through the school in a local shop of a major retailer. She was searched on her way out. DH rang up their legal department at head office to complain, that it was totally inappropriate for adults to search an underage girl. She wasn’t searched again.

Looking in her bag or something else?

It's absolutely standard for retail. Staff theft is a big problem. Not every brand willbe that yhorough but those that are have good reason. Brands that get really badly hit search really thoroughly. JD Sport & brands under their ownership will search bags, all pockets on all layers of clothing, waistbands, trouser bottoms/turn ups, socks and boot legs as well as bags. You have to declare your foorwear so you can't leave in different shoes without noting it. They do these searches if you want to pop out for a coffee on your break, not just at end of shift. You also have to have bin bags checked before they go out. It's cruddy but these are presumably reactive measures.

Tbf I no longer work in retail but have to pass building security in & out and can be pulled for a bag search!

Why? What has her age got to do with whether she might steal something?

I worked a Saturday job in retail in the 90s and it was standard policy that you had to have checks before you left. Even if your son doesn’t have a bag OP he could have hidden stuff on him that is why everyone has to be checked

All the new starters sat and completed online courses on their mobiles. Very bizarre, why that couldn’t be done at home
was beyond me. It took him just over 2 hours. It’s a good 20 mins drive each way for me! He is on an 8 hour contract, which they have split into 2, 4 hour shifts. It’s not worth my petrol and wasting a day hanging around for him or staying up late. There is no option for public transport and it’s too far to bike on busy roads.
We’ve realised that him taking this job was a bloody mistake!

Routine when I worked Saturdays in Woolies in early 80s,

Yep I worked at Harvey Nicks in the 1980s and we had our bags inspected every evening.

The fact that it is normal practice does not make it acceptable...

It shows a complete lack of trust and respect for the staff who are already paid rubbish wages.

Personally I would suggest my child finds a job elsewhere.

It is a good life lesson too to learn that employers should not get away with treating their employees like dirt and to value yourself and your skills and not put with shoddy treatment.

Also OP why is your 16 year old working until 9pm on a school day?

He’s almost 17 and at college

1. wage rate - my DS was on over £8 an hour at 17 at Tesco
2. bag searching - this happened to all staff when I worked at Next over 30 years ago. It was cursory - staff just held their bags wide open and the manager had a quick look. It wasn’t security level searching though.

I thought this was the case at any store. Worked at Currys when I left school for a few years. Bags were searched and we had a security wand passed over us before leaving.

Had to be signed out by someone once this was done even to go out for break.