Commentary on Sections Section 4 – Meaning of “retail worker”
17.Section 4(1) defines “retail worker” as any person whose usual place of work is retail premises, together with any person who, despite not usually working in retail premises, carries out retail work (as defined in section 5). In either case, a person can count as a retail worker if the person is an employee of the business, an owner of the business, or someone who works in the premises through agency arrangements. It is irrelevant whether a person receives payment for their work (subsection (2)). Accordingly, someone working without payment in a family business or volunteering in a charity shop could still be a “retail worker”.
18.Section 4(1)(c) deals with the specific case of people making deliveries from retail premises (such as supermarket staff fulfilling home deliveries) and ensures that they can also qualify as “retail workers”.
19.Section 4(3) ensures that the prosecution does not need to prove that the accused person knew, or ought to have known, which of the categories mentioned in section 5(1)(b) the retail worker fell into. For example, in proceedings against a person for assaulting a shop-worker, it is enough for the prosecutor to establish, under section 1(2), that the accused knew (or ought to have known) that the person assaulted was a retail worker (and was engaged, at the time, in retail work) without also having to prove that the accused knew (or ought to have known) whether the person assaulted was an owner of the retail business, an employee or an agency worker.