The place has been robbed at least a dozen times in the last five years. I used to work at a hotel which was located behind the gas station. All the desk clerks figured it was only a matter of time before we got robbed, too.
Our manager’s “solution” was to buy a fake surveilance camera. I told him, “That camera is going to get me killed.”
“Why?” he asked, genuinely puzzled.
“Because a robber might demand the tape and not believe me when I say the camera’s a fake.”
My sister’s gas station has security cameras, but there’s not going to be much help from the tape: she says the robber was covered from head-to-toe, wearing gloves and a ski mask.
I’m a bit peeved at the station: even after being robbed so many times, they had my sister working alone. They really ought to install one of those security windows where the cashier is safe behind bullet-proof glass and transactions are handled through a slot.
The local newspaper has said the robber got away with an “Unknown” amount of cash-- my sister says it was about $200. The paper also said that the “employees” (in the plural) were robbed.
Amusingly, one of the local television news reporters said that the employee * told* him that the robber held the gun to her head-- my sister has not talked to the media.
In that case, definitely make sure your sister gets herself a lawyer. If I were the station owner, I would not want to have to explain why I removed something that protected my employees from harm. At the very least, the removal shows that the station owner had a disregard for employee safety.
(Besides which - they can design those so that they can open during the day, but still lock so the clerk is protected at night. Sounds like your sis’s boss is a cheap asshole.)
Your sister should definitely seek the advice of a lawyer, but she should be prepared to hear that her only remedy will be workers’ compensation.
Even in the few states that allow recovery against an employer for “reckless disregard” of employee safety, removal of the security window probably wouldn’t meet that standard. It is (arguably) negligent, to be sure, but mere negligence is not enough. If I recall the case law correctly, the conduct of the employer generally must be so reckless as to render it a virtual certainty that an employee will be injured. Removal of the security window makes a robbery more likely, maybe even a virtual certainty depending on the neighborhood, but that is not the same as making an employee injury a virtual certainty.
At least run it by a local lawyer, though. The laws do vary somewhat by jurisdiction.
First, sorry about the sister. But in respect to the quoted comment only, well, yeah, there’s a definite logic to this. Whenever I go into a gas station that’s protected like this, it’s very, very likely that I won’t ever purchase from there again. I can’t be the only one with this attitude. It’s not about lack of respect to the employee that has a right to be protected, but rather, what the hell do I want to do being in an area where they have to protect the employees with bullet-proof shields? I can just get gasoline closer to home (or in a better neighborhood, etc).
If enough people make this decision, then that gas station either has to go out of business or do something to be more customer-friendly. So, you ask, what if the gas station is in a bad part of town? Now what do you do? Well, everyone has bullet-proof shields there, so there’s nowhere else to take your business, so, there you go.
I’m not in a bad part of town, or I wouldn’t have taken the job. But I do sit behind glass, with a slot for money, and one of those round things to talk through. I wouldn’t feel at all comfortable out there if I didn’t have that, at least, seeing as I’m on my own during my shifts.
I had a WC claim after being injured on a temporary (one-day) job. I received compensation not only for medical expenses, but also for the time that I was unable to work while I was recovering. (cut my thumb on a jeweler’s saw. the stitches and bandages left my right thumb immobile, and as a right-handed person, I could do very little.)
The hearing officer (judge?) said that it didn’t matter that I wasn’t going to return to that job, because the injury meant I was unable to work any job.
This was in New York State in 1987. IANAL, YMMV, etc.
Where I live is such a small town that there really isn’t a “bad side.” We’re one of those few communities which a mix of ecomomic statuses represented on the same streets. Mansions built in the 1800s stand next to small German brick rentals. We don’t really have a “poor” area-- they’re scattered all over town.
This is changing, of course-- recently, McHouse subdivisions have been springing up outside of the city limits. Soon, those with money will flee the older city to these kingdoms of monotony, killing the charming socio-economic mix and giving rise to “bad” areas.
Progress. Gotta love it.
My sister has gotten a phone call from the regional manager, assuring her that she’s in no danger of being fired. I think that her store manager probably just took her frustration and anger out on my sister in the heat of the moment. It doesn’t make her any less of a jerk, but perhaps it was just a bad reaction to stress.
She was contacted immediately after the robbery. I’m giving her the benefit of the doubt that she was upset and agitated, maybe not just because of the robbery, but because the store had to be shut down all night while the cops were talking to her, getting the tape, etc. The robbery happened about 10:00 PM and they didn’t let her go until 5 AM the next morning. (Actually, I don’t know what they were trying to get from her-- the suspect was fully masked and covered, so she couldn’t tell them much.)
Oh pah. About five years ago, a gas station clerk was murdered in Peters Township, Pennsylvania, a moneyed suburb south of Pittsburgh. The average new home price in this little municipality is in the low seven figures and you’re more likely to see a Lexus or Mercedes filling up at this station than a Cavalier or pick-up truck. After the clerk (the brother of one of the owners, IIRC) was killed, this station put up the security glass. There is no boundary in which crime can and will occur. If only “dangerous” areas have security measures in place, then criminals will go to the “non-dangerous” areas and have their ways there.
Lissa, I’m glad to know that your sister’s gotten a reprieve from the higher-up.
Ivylad used to work in a convenience store. It was the safest one around, because they’d give free coffee and hot dogs to the cops on duty. This made the cops hang around in the parking lot, waiting for calls and coming back after their cruising.
It’s hard to rob a store when there’s three or four cop cars parked in the parking lot.
I think the reason employers look for excuses to terminate employees who make workers’ comp claims is that someone who is in the process of pursuing a claim is more likely to be undependable when it comes to work scheduling.
“Tina, I need you to come in tomorrow.”
“Ow, I feel a twinge! I don’t think I’ll be able to work tomorrow.”
(I’m not imputing that behavior to the OP’s sister, of course.)
I didn’t deny that robberies won’t happen and some people won’t get killed; that wasn’t the point of this discussion. You can’t “oh pah” the fact that many people will stop going there (unless it’s the only game in town). It will start losing business just as happened in the case of the OP’s gas station. There’s a reason it happens. It’s tough luck for the owners; put up unfriendly plexiglass and lose customers, or don’t and lose employees.
But you do, every single day. The guy the gets the carts in the parking lot can get run over. If they truly value him, the store would invest inbuild super advanced robots for cart recollection. Okay, that technology doesn’t exist. Well, I posit that every single McDonald’s ought to make you order through plexiglass, and have walled off sections that can be opened and closed in order to do cleaning. Otherwise the owners are just bastards that don’t care about their employees.
The fact is (in the GQ sense) is that there are market decisions that are involved with deciding how far one is to go when trying to protect employees. The fact is, being customer unfriendly will reduce business. It’s not evil or good one way or the other. It’s not personal. It’s not anything outside of ordinary business.