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‘Still full of raw emotion’: Bondi Junction retail staff face traumatic return to work
By Josefine Ganko and Michael Koziol
Traumatised workers are steeling themselves to return to the scene of Saturday’s Bondi Junction stabbing attack after Westfield confirmed the shopping centre will reopen for business on Friday.
Jesse Carpenter, 18, who works casual Saturday shifts at a board game shop in the shopping centre, says even passing the building on the bus on the way to uni this week has stirred up feelings.
Jesse Carpenter, who goes by they/them pronouns, says they hope returning to work at the site of the attacks will help with processing what happened.Credit: Rhett Wyman
“It’s still full of raw emotion,” they said of the rampage, which left six people dead and a dozen injured.
Westfield owner, the Scentre Group, confirmed the shopping centre would reopen for a community reflection day on Thursday before returning to normal trading.
Good Games is located on level one of the Bondi Junction Westfield, and Jesse had just finished their shift when Joel Cauchi entered the building and began attacking shoppers at random.
Jesse recalls the confusion as they tried to figure out what was going on as shop doors shuttered and a “terrible smell” wafted through the mall.
Many retailers have pledged to pay rostered staff for missed shifts during Bondi Junction’s closure.Credit: Getty
Panic didn’t set in until Jesse reached the outside of the shopping centre, and a person yelled, “There’s someone with a gun!”
Jesse fled towards their Bronte home, calling their mum, friends and store manager along the way.
“I think I feel fine about returning to work,” the teenager said when asked how they feel about going back to work on Saturday, but then reconsiders.
“Well, not fine, but I will.”
Returning to the scene could help process what happened, they said.
“I think going back and existing there is a step of some kind,” Jesse said.
“Seeing the space and coping with it, and taking the time to accept that it happened and to think about the victims.”
Retailers were allowed to bring workers back into the shopping centre for the first time since the attack on Wednesday.
While most stores kept their lights off and doors shuttered, Emma Georgopoulos, 18, who also works at Good Games, was called in to do a stock take. She described the scene as “eerie”, with security guards pacing up and down the mostly empty mall.
Staff returning to work at Westfield Bondi Junction on Wednesday.Credit: Peter Rae
Bernie Smith, NSW secretary of the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association, said major retailers at Bondi Junction had all committed to paying their rostered staff – including casuals and penalty rates – for shifts missed while the shopping centre was closed.
Some had gone above and beyond, he said, by covering temporary accommodation for staff who couldn’t retrieve their keys from inside the crime scene.
“To date, it has all been pretty good in terms of people doing the right thing,” he said.
Coles, Woolworths, Myer and David Jones all confirmed they would pay staff who were rostered while the centre had been closed.
The union said it was still working with the government, the Australian Retailers Association and some smaller employers to ensure all staff were paid.
Smith said employers should have access to business interruption insurance, given the attack was not an act of war or terrorism.
Unions, including the breakaway Retail and Fast Food Workers Union, have also been providing advice to employees who may be nervous or uncomfortable about returning to work after the traumatising attack.
Smith said some workers might take shifts at alternative sites for a short period.
“The next few days will be a really difficult time for our members,” he said. “It is an important time for all customers to be particularly respectful and conscious of how people might be feeling.”
Paul Zahra, chief executive of the Australian Retailers Association and a former chief executive of David Jones, said most retailers had been able to redeploy staff to other malls such as Eastgardens or in the city.
He said as the centre reopened, it was vital for employers to remember that “psychological damage can present itself in many different ways”.
“What we’ve been saying to retailers is it’s really important to ensure they keep a very close eye on their teams, that their wellbeing comes first and foremost.”
If you or anyone you know needs help, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 (and see lifeline.org.au) or Beyond Blue on 1300 22 4636 (and see beyondblue.org.au).
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