JOINT LETTER | Acceptance of cash: workers in the retail and wholesale sector need to be protected

Addressed to

The European Commission  •  The European Parliament  •  The Council of the European Union

UNI Europa and EuroCommerce, the European social partners representing employers and workers in the retail and wholesale sector, support the continued acceptance of cash as a cornerstone of financial inclusion in an increasingly digital society. Ensuring that everyone can participate in economic life, regardless of their access to digital payment tools, is a principle we fully endorse.

It is precisely because we take this commitment seriously that we call on the co-legislators, ahead of the ECON Committee vote, plenary and subsequent trilogue, to ensure that the rules on mandatory cash acceptance are workable and safe for the workers who implement them every day.

Employers are legally obliged under EU and national occupational safety legislation to provide a safe working environment. An unconditional requirement to accept cash in high-risk contexts could conflict with those obligations and place workers in an untenable position.

We therefore call for a targeted and proportionate exemption in the proposed Legal Tender of Euro Banknotes and Coins Regulation (2023/0208(COD)) that allows stores to limit or exclude cash acceptance where there is an objective and demonstrable security risk. This should cover:

• A defined night-time window (for example, between 20:00 and 06:00), when staffing levels are reduced and robbery risk is statistically higher; and
• Specific high-risk contexts at any hour, such as fuel stations or establishments in areas with documented elevated crime rates, where cash handling poses a disproportionate risk to staff and customers.

Any such exemption must be proportionate, justified by objective criteria and monitored by Member States as provided in the proposed regulation.

On behalf of the European social partners for retail and wholesale

Christel Delberghe                                                  Oliver Röthig