Arabic version: وولوورثس تدرس تجربة للتعرّف على الوجوه في كانبيرا

According to ABC News, Woolworths is consulting staff at its Woden and Gungahlin stores in Canberra on a potential facial recognition technology trial aimed at protecting workers from repeat violent, abusive or threatening offenders.

The supermarket chain said the two stores were selected because of the high number of workplace protection orders in place. Woolworths head of violence prevention Sarah Faorlin said the proposed trial would target known repeat offenders, including people served with court-ordered workplace protection orders in the ACT.

If introduced, the technology would scan customers as they entered the stores and create a temporary biometric profile. Woolworths said profiles not matched to its watch list would be deleted within one second. Where a match is detected, staff may alert the team and police may be called.

Ms Faorlin said Woolworths had recorded a 460 per cent increase in “unacceptable incidents” nationally since 2020. She said the company had seen success with workplace protection orders in the ACT and was assessing facial recognition as another measure to protect staff and customers.

Shop Distributive and Allied Employees Association NSW and ACT secretary Bernie Smith said the union supported the technology if it operated under strict guidelines. Woolworths said it would display signage outside the supermarkets and could implement the system by the end of the month if staff consultation is successful.