The 2G controls in retail bring employees to their limits. They are increasingly insulted, threatened and even attacked by customers.
Since last Tuesday (January 11), Austria’s shops have been obliged to check their customers’ 2G status at the checkout at the latest. It has not been a week since then, but the sellers feel the pressure that the authorities have put on their shoulders enormously. Many are nerve-wracked and are already walking on the proverbial gums.
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“It’s impossible to endure that for a whole day,” complains the employee of a well-known stationery discount store in Bruck-Mürzzuschlag to the “Kleine Zeitung”. Her everyday life has changed massively with the obligation to check and consists to a large extent only of insults, threats and disrespect. “We are constantly being threatened with a complaint. In addition, many are of the firm opinion that we are not allowed to check. The police have already been deployed several times,” the Styrian woman continued.
Even a trifle like a single office item is often enough to ignite dicey situations. “Many then insist that a pencil is an essential product and that they can buy it without the 2G rule. Some deliberately seek an argument,” says the woman. Something similar happened in a libro in Graz, where a man escalated completely because of a sticker in the 2G control.
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The discounter employee is caught between hammer and anvil: “We also get pressure from the head office. But it doesn’t help, we pull it through consistently.” But can that be good in the long run? The additional stress is already noticeable: “People drop out after just a week because the mental stress is just enormous,” she says. Imploring postscript in the direction of the 2G hooligans: “We really can’t help it that the rules are the way they are.”
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