Following an incident that occurred at two Edmonton Mac’s stores in December, when two separate clerks were shot dead while working alone by the same group of robbers, the Alberta government has announced that occupational health and safety officials are currently touring the province’s convenience stores and gas bars to inquire about safety standards.
In a March 1 announcement, Alberta’s Ministry of Labour stated that oh&s officers would be inspecting about 200 worksites over the following three months. Inspectors are meeting with employers and workers to discuss how employment standards and safety legislation affect such issues as violence on the job, working alone, pay deductions and young workers.
The Ministry has given the inspectors the authority to issue orders to employers on the spot, such as stop-work or stop-use orders, or orders to show documents such as the results of risk assessments, the Ministry added. Any oh&s officer can refer a store for a follow-up visit if he or she suspects that it is not up to proper employment standards.
“Health and safety on the job is paramount,” Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray said in a press statement about the inspection campaign. “Employers are responsible to take all precautions to ensure their workers are safe, [are] treated fairly and go home to their families at the end of the day, no matter what industry they work in.”
Two men and a 13-year-old boy were charged with first-degree murder following the Dec. 18 Mac’s robberies. The tragedy prompted Alberta Justice Minister Kathleen Ganley to announce plans to work on safety legislation for the province’s late-night workers.
On Feb. 8, yet another Mac’s employee in Edmonton was seriously injured in an attempted armed robbery. Two men and a woman assaulted the worker and left him with non-life-threatening injuries, according to information from the Alberta Federation of Labour (AFL).
Following the latter incident, the AFL called for a new regulation in which retail stores open all night must have more than one employee on duty, or when this is not possible, that a lone employee must work behind a locked, secure barrier – similar to the law in British Columbia.
“Anyone who reads the papers or watches the news can see that workers who are alone late at night are being targeted for violence,” AFL president Gil McGowan said on Feb. 8. “We can’t ignore incidents like this one.”
Western Convenience Stores Association president Andrew Klukas said in a media statement on March 1 that his organization would work with the Alberta government to make proven safety procedures accessible to all retailers who work alone in convenience stores.
“Alberta retailers operate in a challenging environment, and their safety and that of the public is paramount to our industry,” said Klukas.
The inspection campaign’s findings are expected to be used in an upcoming review of Alberta’s oh&s and employment-standards laws, the Ministry of Labour said.