Victoria’s worsening retail crime wave has exposed a growing divide between the Allan government and Australia’s biggest retailers, who are calling for urgent action, including high-tech and legal tools already delivering results in other states.

New data from Woolworths reveals that just five offenders have been responsible for more than 520 separate incidents across its Victorian stores over the past five years, which is more than in Queensland and NSW combined.

One repeat offender racked up 131 offences in 17 months, repeatedly breaching police banning notices that have no legal weight.

Coles reported similarly shocking figures, with one Melbourne offender linked to 160 separate incidents at a single store.

Despite this, the Allan government is refusing to introduce Workplace Protection Orders (WPOs). These are measures credited with a 99% drop in violent and repeat offending at Woolworths stores in the ACT, the only jurisdiction where they currently apply.

WPOs act like restraining orders, allowing retailers to ban violent customers from stores for up to 12 months, with police empowered to arrest anyone who breaches them on the spot.

While Victoria plans to toughen penalties for those who assault or abuse retail and transport workers, including doubling maximum jail time from three to six months for summary offences, the proposed bill stops short of introducing WPOs.

Unions, retailers and the Australian Retailers Association have slammed the delay, saying frontline workers are paying the price.

SDA Victorian secretary Michael Donovan called WPOs a “no-brainer”, adding: “Our members are suffering shocking aggression and violence every week. The government needs to act, not consult.”

Retailers including Woolworths, Coles, Bunnings and Myer have urged Premier Jacinta Allan to move quickly, arguing that small groups of serial offenders are driving much of the state’s crime problem.

Woolworths’ head of violence prevention Sarah Faorlin said the ACT trial proved WPOs “keep staff and customers safer and give police immediate powers to act.”

Some Victoria Police sources and government insiders say they are cautious about new legal frameworks that could increase workloads, while others argue federal privacy laws, which currently restrict the use of facial recognition technology, are preventing stores from using tech-based crime prevention tools.

With retail crime up more than 50% in two years, Bunnings boss Michael Schneider called it “a safety crisis”.

For now, Victoria’s frontline workers have been left waiting while politicians debate whether proven technology and legal orders are too hard to implement.