Company leaving me to work checkouts and self scan alone

[Sidewinder]

This type of expectation is commonplace in retail - self serve is supposed to be low maintenance and one supervisor can run 4, 6 or even 8 alone, however as you point out there will always be occasions where this proves difficult - if not impossible.

 

Unfortunately there is nothing 'unlawful' about what you are being asked to do, however there should be an element of what is 'reasonable' on the part of the employer. Your best (in fact only) approach to this would be to raise a grievance on the grounds that the workload is unreasonable - and if you can support this with concerns over customer dissatisfaction, complaints, poor service perception and even the increased risk of customer theft then it may be looked at more favourably.

 

And if you are in the Union and can get your local Rep on your side with it so much the better, but sadly I doubt very much that the powers that be will do much!

[Sidewinder]

I agree - completely unacceptable, but alas there is no single benchmark for what is 'reasonable'

 

The OP did originally name the employer and I do not think they sell age restricted products through the standard checkouts