How do you feel about receipt and bag checks in local retail stores?

  • 1
    37.04% (10 votes)
    I gladly show my receipt
  • 2
    37.04% (10 votes)
    I participate, but I don't like it
  • 3
    14.81% (4 votes)
    I refuse all receipt/bag checks
  • 4
    11.11% (3 votes)
    I show my reciept if they insist

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Comments

  1. joe said on Jul 12 2008, 04:07 AM:

    Dear Editor: I would like to highlight the threat to one of our basic constitutional rights by almost all of the hotels in Antigua. This is the right to privacy. So-called consent searches are carried out on workers on a daily basis, mainly involving workers displaying the contents of their bags and their vehicles while leaving a hotel’s property. The thefts that have occurred and continue to occur at these hotels, have been a threat to their profitability and efficiency. As a result, they have created counter measures in order to prevent stealing. The main measure is to search staff when they enter the property and before they leave. In this way, upon departure if there is anything which was not on their person during the initial search then they would have to account for the item(s). There are, however, weaknesses in this system. Rest of th Article Beginning of the Article Workers are seldom checked before entering the property, therefore, the security officer cannot say for certain that there is any change in the contents of their bags/vehicles. Only line staff is checked. Thus, supervisors and managers are assumed to be unable to steal. This is a one-sided and discriminatory practice. These searches are unlawful and unconstitutional. According to the laws of Antigua and Barbuda, only police officers and special constables are allowed to conduct searches on people. They can either be by the use of a warrant or by the consent of the person to be searched. In both cases the police officer must have reason to conduct a search, i.e. suspicion that the suspect has stolen items or has illegal drugs in his possession among other reasons. It is not an arbitrary search as is done in the hotels. When a security guard asks to see what’s in your trunk or bag he is not looking for a specific item. If the worker refuses to be searched and the police come to the scene, the police cannot, according to the law search you unless they know what specific item they are looking for. If, however, a search is eventually carried out on the person and there is no stolen property found, both the hotel management and the police officer who conducted the search can be sued. Hotel management is able to continue these policies because the workers need to feed, clothe and shelter themselves and their families and they fear being suspended or fired. In some cases, workers are actually not allowed to punch out their time cards until they display the contents of their bags. The union, which by law is allowed to take money from workers’ salaries, is not dealing with this issue although they are aware that it occurs and know of its illegality. Some workers have genuinely lost confidence in these union officials as they are seen dining for free at the hotels and have been known to be hired by the hotels after they have ceased to work for the union. Theft in the workplace, however, is a real issue in all companies. Management and staff need to develop more proactive and less demeaning measures in order to eradicate this problem. The use of CCTV and provision of sterile changing rooms/lockers is a practical answer. The worker comes to work; proceeds to his locker and stores his belongings. If he/she needs something from this area during the shift then CCTV cameras placed outside of the changing room would monitor what workers went into the room with. Proper audits of hotel property before and after shifts begin is another progressive measure. Placing bar codes on hotel property is another proactive measure. A balance needs to be struck between the right of a hotel to protect its property and the rights of the staff. Regards, concerned citizen.

  2. dee said on Apr 17 2008, 19:04 PM:

    Checking receipts is a way of weeding out dis honest cashiers and/or inventory errors when products have similar model or sku #s

  3. Charlie said on Mar 07 2008, 15:03 PM:

    Seems to me like the receipt checks are a store's way of cutting costs by not hiring security personnel. Plus, the door checkers often pick and choose specific people when checking bags (you can read between the lines here).