In two Canberra suburbs, a supermarket chain is weighing whether a machine that recognises faces can help keep its staff safe from people who keep returning to commit violence. It is a familiar human impulse, the wish to guard those who serve us from those who would harm them, now meeting a newer tool that promises protection but asks every shopper to be seen. The company points to a sharp national rise in incidents and to the Australian Capital Territory's long experiment with workplace protection orders, while the union that speaks for workers accepts the idea only under tight rules. Whether
Two Canberra Woolworths Stores Weigh Facial Recognition Trial to Curb Workplace Violence
Retail workers face unprovoked violence and aggression; an SDA member was reportedly beaten with a baseball bat near Woolworths Woden.
Scanned at the door, deleted within one second if there's no match
Mark
Why these two stores, Woden and Gungahlin?
Mimi
Woolworths says it's because they have a high number of workplace protection orders in place. The ACT introduced those orders first, back in 2016.
Mark
So the watch list is tied to those orders?
Mimi
Faorlin describes it as a list of repeat violent and aggressive offenders. The union's Bernie Smith talks about police being called when someone breaches an order.
Luke
Those aren't necessarily the same thing, though. The reporting doesn't say who goes on the watch list or how anyone is added or removed.
Mark
What happens to everyone else who walks in?
Mimi
Every customer is scanned and gets a temporary profile. If there's no match, Woolworths says it's deleted within one second.
Luke
That's the company's description. Nothing in the reporting verifies it independently.
Mark
And the 460 per cent figure?
Luke
It's Woolworths' own number for what it calls unacceptable incidents nationally since 2020. We don't know how that's defined or what the baseline was, and it isn't specific to Canberra.
Mimi
The human side is plain, though. Smith said a union member was beaten with a baseball bat next door to Woden a couple of months ago.
Luke
True, and that's his account. It also happened next door, not inside the store, so it shows the local climate more than what this technology would have caught.
Mark
Is it definitely happening?
Mimi
No. Staff are being consulted first, and only then could it start by month's end.
Il Polso
- Woolworths is considering scanning every customer entering its Woden and Gungahlin stores in Canberra, a move that has set off a fierce debate over privacy and safety.
- A reported 460 per cent rise in unacceptable incidents since 2020 has pushed the company toward a technology it hopes will stop repeat offenders before they strike.
- The union's backing is conditional, and its leaders warn that a baseball-bat attack near Woolworths Woden shows the stakes are real and immediate.
- Police would be called only for breaches of workplace protection orders, and the trial could begin before the month is out if store teams agree to proceed.
In two Canberra suburbs, a supermarket chain is weighing whether a machine that recognises faces can help keep its staff safe from people who keep returning to commit violence. It is a familiar human impulse, the wish to guard those who serve us from those who would harm them, now meeting a newer tool that promises protection but asks every shopper to be seen. The company points to a sharp national rise in incidents and to the Australian Capital Territory's long experiment with workplace protection orders, while the union that speaks for workers accepts the idea only under tight rules. Whether the trial begins this month depends on the people who work in the stores, and on whether careful limits can keep vigilance from becoming surveillance.
Woolworths is considering a trial of facial recognition technology in two Canberra supermarkets, at Woden and Gungahlin, with the aim of protecting staff from violent offenders who keep coming back. If the plan goes ahead, the system could be running by the end of this month.
The company's head of violence prevention, Sarah Faorlin, said the two stores were chosen because they have many workplace protection orders, legal tools that the ACT pioneered in 2016. She said the company had seen real success with those orders and that facial recognition was another way to protect team members and customers. She pointed to a 460 per cent rise in unacceptable incidents nationally since 2020, saying it was appalling that staff still face unprovoked violence while doing their jobs.
The proposed system would scan each customer entering the stores, build a temporary biometric profile, and check it against a watch list of known repeat offenders. Profiles without a match would be deleted within a second. A match would alert staff, and police might be called.
The Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, through its NSW and ACT secretary Bernie Smith, has responded with both caution and conditional support. Smith said police would likely be called only for breaches of protection orders, and he urged people not to imagine the violence as minor complaints at the checkout. He recalled a union member being beaten with a baseball bat near Woolworths Woden. Smith said the technology could help, but only under very strict guidelines and genuine social licensing.
Faorlin promised transparency, including signs outside both stores, and stressed that nothing is final. Store teams are being consulted, and the trial will proceed only if they want it to. What remains to watch is whether staff choose to go ahead and whether the union's demanded safeguards take shape alongside the plan.
Woolworths is weighing a trial of facial recognition technology in two Canberra supermarkets, at Woden and Gungahlin, with the stated aim of protecting staff from violent offenders who keep coming back. If the plan goes ahead, the technology could be running by the end of this month.
The company's head of violence prevention, Sarah Faorlin, said the two stores were picked because of the high number of workplace protection orders in place there. These are legal orders designed to prevent and reduce violence in workplaces, and the ACT was the first jurisdiction in Australia to bring them in, in 2016. "The ACT unfortunately does have high levels of violence and aggression," she said. She added that Woolworths had seen great success with the orders in the territory, and that assessing facial recognition in stores was another way to protect team members and customers.
Faorlin pointed to a national figure to explain the urgency: Woolworths has recorded a 460 per cent increase in what it calls unacceptable incidents in its stores since 2020. "It is appalling that our team members continue to face unprovoked violence and aggression when they're just trying to do their jobs," she said.
As she described it, the system would scan every customer entering either store and create a temporary biometric profile. That profile would be checked against a watch list of known repeat violent and aggressive offenders. If there is no match, the profile is deleted within one second. If there is a match, staff would be alerted to the person's presence, and police may be called.
How often police would actually be called is a point the union has views on. Bernie Smith, the NSW and ACT secretary of the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association, said his understanding was that Woolworths would not phone police every time the machine registers a match. Police would be called, he said, for someone who has breached a workplace protection order, because that is a criminal offence and enforcement is a matter for police.
Smith said he knew well how serious the violence is at the two stores under consideration, and he cautioned against picturing it as customers merely getting angry at the checkouts. A couple of months ago, he said, a union member was beaten with a baseball bat next door to Woolworths Woden.
The union's support comes with conditions. Smith said facial recognition could help combat violence as long as it is done within very strict guidelines as part of a social licensing of the technology.
Faorlin said Woolworths would be really transparent about the trial and that signs would be displayed outside both supermarkets. She also stressed that nothing is settled: the company is consulting store teams to find out whether they want to proceed. If that consultation goes well, the trial could begin before the month is out. The things to watch are the outcome of that staff consultation and whether the guidelines the union is asking for take shape alongside it.
Citazioni salienti
The aim is to use facial recognition technology to actively monitor for repeat violent and aggressive offenders who frequent our stores to protect team safety.— Sarah Faorlin, Woolworths head of violence prevention
Facial recognition could help combat violence as long as it is done within very strict guidelines as part of a social licensing of it.— Bernie Smith, NSW and ACT Secretary, SDA
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