Effective staff training - a cracking example

Retail businesses have to keep up with new laws that affect sales of goods to customers, particularly when there are regulations about the minimum age of customers who are allowed to buy certain goods. Thus, as every teenager is well aware, ID is needed to buy many goods, from cigarettes and alcohol to knives and fireworks. Sales of both indoor and outdoor fireworks to under-16’s are now banned, following the Pyrotechnics Articles (Safety) Regulations introduced this year which reinforced laws banning the sale of explosive items to children. As a result, retailers will have had to ensure that their staff were fully aware of the regulations, and what to do in the event that a customer who appears too young, tries to buy those goods that are included in the ban.

That means that, even if shopping with a parent, an assistant cannot allow a child to hand over the goods to buy them, or both the assistant and the store may be liable for a fine - with a maximum penalty of a £5,000 fine or three months imprisonment. And here is the ideal story to illustrate the issue - in which a child was not allowed to hand over a box of Christmas crackers at the till as they are deemed to be ‘explosives’. The episode may sound ridiculous - but reading down towards the end of the article shows the issue for the employer, who has to train the employee to uphold the law. It also illustrates quite neatly the cost of red tape and bureaucracy, for small businesses who have to keep on top of every new law and regulation, in order to avoid the risk of inadvertently doing something wrong and being penalised for it!

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