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More than 28,000 staff across popular alcohol retailers such as Dan Murphy’s, BWS and Jimmy Brings will receive training in how to recognise signs of domestic violence in the workplace.
BWS managing director Scott Davidson said an incident at a Queensland store was one of the motivations to roll out training to staff working at its 1400 stores nationally from today.
“Recently in QLD, one of our store teams actually encountered a domestic violence issue where a young lady sought refuge inside one of our stores,” Mr Davidson said.
“Our team reacted instinctively, close the doors and called the police immediately.”
The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE) estimates alcohol is involved in up to 65 per cent of family violence incidents reported to the police.
It is also believed to be a contributor to 47 per cent of child abuse cases each year.
Endeavour Drinks, the parent group of the three national booze retailers, announced they had teamed up with 1800 RESPECT, the national counselling service for sexual assault and domestic violence, to combat the issue.
“As frontline workers, store team members and delivery drivers can be exposed to situations of domestic and family violence in their work,” Endeavour Group’s general manager Claire Smith said.
“This training will help keep them safe and learn how to better support the communities they serve.”
Fiona Mort, head of 1800 RESPECT, said the training would not just involve staff reacting to potential domestic violence incidents.
It was also about staff recognising conversations that were potentially disrespectful towards women.
“They might see somebody is actually interjecting in conversations that are disrespectful about women.
“It’s actually about picking up on and interjecting in those conversations (that can occur in a sporting environment such as Aussie rules football) like, ‘You run like a girl, you play like a girl or girls can’t umpire.’ That’s disrespectful.”
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