Air Raid Alert in a Store: What Managers, Employees, and Customers Should Do

During an air raid alert, store employees must immediately stop serving customers, notify customers and colleagues of the danger, and proceed to a previously identified accessible shelter. Completing a sale, counting the cash in the till, or turning off equipment must not delay people. They must remain in the shelter until the official all-clear and follow instructions from authorized bodies.

Managers should check the shelter and route in advance, approve procedures, appoint a lead and backup for each shift, train staff, and set a process for recording work stoppage time. Specific decisions depend on the premises, number of employees, shelter access, and current local orders. The employer determines how this time is paid based on the actual circumstances and applicable legal grounds.

What obligations does a store owner have?

Article 20 of the Civil Protection Code of Ukraine requires business entities to implement civil protection measures, train employees, organize evacuation measures, and display information about safe conduct. This information must also be accessible to people with visual and hearing impairments. The exception to the display requirement applies to people who work individually from their place of residence and do not employ workers.

The duty to provide collective protection covers all of the entity’s employees and, at facilities and locations where large numbers of people gather, visitors as well. Managers should therefore consider the characteristics of their facility and coordinate with the local self-government body on the need for protective structures. Before putting up a sign giving a shelter’s address, managers should verify that it is accessible to people from the store.

Under Article 20, a business entity with fewer than 200 employees must appoint a civil protection officer from among its staff. With 200 to 3,000 employees, the manager must appoint a civil protection official. For entities classified in civil protection category two, the requirement to appoint an official also applies when the workforce is smaller.

If an entity is classified in a civil protection category and has more than 3,000 employees, its manager must establish a civil protection unit. A retail chain manager should consider the total workforce of the business entity and its civil protection category.

The manager must also approve regulations for the established unit or a job description for the appointed civil protection employee, based on the relevant standard regulations. The document should define the employee’s duties so they know which measures to organize.

An individual entrepreneur carries out civil protection measures personally. To organize a shift, they can assign specific actions to employees in advance: who announces the alert, who shows the route, and who stays in contact with the manager.

Article 13 of the Law of Ukraine “On Occupational Safety” requires employers to provide safe working conditions, approve internal instructions, and take preventive measures in response to changing circumstances. Managers should therefore adapt alert procedures to the store’s actual conditions and review them if the shelter, route, or staff changes.

How to prepare instructions and assign actions

Under Article 130 of the Civil Protection Code, a business entity with a workforce of 50 people or fewer must develop and approve instructions for staff actions in the event of a threat or emergency. An entity with more than 50 people needs a response plan. This distinction does not apply to high-risk facilities, for which a plan to contain and resolve accidents and address their consequences is required.

The number of employees for this rule is determined at the level of each business entity. If all stores in a chain belong to one entity, it counts its total workforce. If the stores operate through different legal entities or individual entrepreneurs, each counts its own employees separately.

Article 130 also requires a business entity to develop and approve a plan for evacuation measures covering the population, including employees, as well as material and cultural assets, in the event of a threat or emergency. A civil protection plan for a special period is required for a business entity that continues working during wartime and is classified in a civil protection category. Managers determine which documents are needed in light of these conditions.

For a hypothetical small store, the manager can use the following outline for instructions and adapt it to the premises:

1. Alert notification. The manager identifies alert sources for the store’s area and appoints an employee to notify everyone present.
2. Shelter. The instructions give the address, exact entrance, route, access conditions, and contact details for the person responsible for the shelter. If a backup option is available, it should also be checked and described.
3. Shift actions. The manager appoints a lead and an employee to replace them when absent. The instructions separately describe what a salesperson working alone should do.
4. Assistance to people. The instructions specify how employees notify people with hearing or visual impairments about the danger and assist those who have difficulty moving around.
5. Equipment and exit. The manager lists only brief, safe actions employees can take without delaying the move to shelter. The store-closing procedure must keep the exit clear for people.
6. Communication and return. The manager sets a way to check that employees have reached shelter, identifies the source of the official all-clear, and establishes how work will resume.
7. Time records. The instructions identify who records when work stoppage begins and ends and passes the information to the accountant.

At a hypothetical store with two salespeople, the manager might ask one to announce the alert and indicate the direction to go, while the other assists visitors who need help. Both then proceed to the shelter. If one person is working the shift, the instructions should allow them to notify those present and start moving immediately, without waiting for the manager or doing extra business tasks.

How to choose an accessible shelter and check the route

The State Emergency Service of Ukraine (DSNS) recommends going to the nearest shelter as soon as possible after an alert. This resource links to maps of current shelters. When preparing a store, managers can use these maps and official information from local authorities, then personally check the chosen option.

Managers should walk the route during store hours: locate the actual shelter entrance, find out how access works, check the stairs and obstacles, and determine whether people using wheelchairs or other mobility aids can enter. This check helps establish whether the specific employees and visitors can use the shelter.

Managers should ask the person responsible for the shelter about its capacity and whether it can accommodate store employees and, for a location where large numbers of people gather, visitors too. This coordination should take other shelter users into account.

If a store shares a facility in the civil protection shelter system with other businesses, institutions, or citizens, it participates in maintaining the facility under the agreements between them. This obligation is set out in part 9 of Article 32 of the Civil Protection Code, so managers should also agree on the store’s participation in maintaining a shared shelter.

For a hypothetical store, the manager can write out the route and add a simple diagram: which exit to use, where to turn, and how to recognize the correct entrance. DSNS recommends avoiding strategically important buildings when outdoors. If the main route is blocked or the shelter is inaccessible, staff will need a backup route that has been checked in advance. Any access problem should be reported to the person responsible for the shelter and the local authorities.

Before using a basement, storage area, parking garage, or semi-basement level, managers must check whether it is suitable for sheltering people. Article 32 of the Civil Protection Code defines the types of facilities in the civil protection shelter system and the conditions for their use.

Under Article 32, the simplest shelter is a basement or semi-basement room or another underground structure where conditions allow people to stay for at least 48 hours and provide protection that reduces the indirect effects of conventional weapons. The population may use it only when other facilities in the civil protection shelter system are temporarily insufficient during a special period.

If a store maintains a facility in the civil protection shelter system, the owner, user, or entity holding it on its balance sheet must keep it ready and ensure proper operation. Under Article 32, a protective structure, dual-purpose structure, or simplest shelter must be made ready no later than 24 hours after the introduction of a regime specified by that article, including during a special period. This grace period does not apply to protective structures that must remain in constant readiness.

The balance holder inspects the facility quarterly and after emergencies or other hazardous events that may worsen the shelter’s technical condition. The holder records the results in a free-form report and registers it in a special log. A facility made ready for its intended use must provide round-the-clock, unobstructed access to the relevant population groups.

During martial law, managers must check the procedure for using shelters established by the military administration under Article 32. In line with its requirements, managers set rules for using a shelter owned by or managed by the business. These rules must ensure public access when the relevant civil protection alerts are issued, including when the store is closed.

In an extreme case, when there is no shelter nearby, DSNS recommends using the space behind two walls on the ground floor as minimum protection. This recommendation applies specifically to that extreme situation. Managers should arrange in advance for people to move to an accessible shelter, since glass doors, a storefront window, or an arbitrarily chosen corner of the sales floor do not provide adequate protection.

What sales staff should do immediately after an alert

For a hypothetical store, managers can use the following procedure as the basis for internal instructions and adapt it to local guidance and the checked route:

1. Stop serving customers immediately. An employee notifies people in the sales area and other rooms of the alert. Completing a purchase, handing over an order, receiving goods, or running a cash register report must not delay the move to shelter.
2. Give a specific direction. The employee gives the shelter address and explains where its entrance is. If possible, they show people the route or accompany them. The announcement must also be understandable to people who cannot hear a spoken message.
3. Offer assistance. The employee asks a person with limited mobility what support they need and helps them use the checked accessible route. DSNS recommends using the stairs and not taking the elevator.
4. Take only brief, safe equipment-related actions. An employee turns equipment off if this is provided for in the instructions, they know how to do it, and doing so does not delay people. Returning for goods or personal belongings is prohibited.
5. Proceed to the shelter. All employees leave the sales area; the manager must not ask a salesperson to stay behind to guard the cash register or property. If the exit is locked, the person responsible must make sure this does not trap anyone inside.
6. Check in with employees. Once in the shelter, the lead tells the manager who has arrived and whether anyone needs help. If someone’s whereabouts are unknown, they check by available means without entering a hazardous area on their own.
7. Wait for the official all-clear. Employees follow instructions from responsible persons and authorized authorities. An official all-clear is required before trade resumes; silence after explosions or a customer’s message does not confirm that the alert has ended.

For a communications outage, the manager of a hypothetical store can plan for several sources of official alerts in advance. DSNS recommends getting information by radio if the internet and mobile service are unavailable.

What to do if a customer refuses to go to shelter

Article 21 of the Civil Protection Code requires citizens to follow safety rules and emergency procedures. A store employee can calmly repeat the danger warning, explain that service has been suspended, and show the way to shelter.

For a hypothetical store, the manager should include non-coercive communication in the instructions: employees do not push a person toward the exit, lock them in the store, or keep serving them because they refuse to leave. A citizen’s general duty to follow safety rules does not authorize sales staff to move visitors by force or issue fines.

Should the store close, and what should happen to the cash register report?

Managers should check the current decisions and orders of the competent authorities for their area: who they apply to, what actions they require, and when work may resume. They should follow recommendations and binding orders according to their content and legal status. Internal instructions should ensure that service stops and people move to shelter.

The State Tax Service of Ukraine’s explanation on cash register operations during an alert recommends stopping sales and leaving the sales area. The explanation concerns fiscal cash registers (RRO) and software-based fiscal cash registers (PRRO). The fiscal report receipt discussed below is also called a Z-report.

Managers can treat this explanation as practical guidance from the tax authority. They should also check local binding requirements for store operations separately.

According to the explanation, if an alert coincides with the end of the store’s working day, the RRO/PRRO fiscal report receipt must be created no later than the next working day, before new payment transactions begin. At a hypothetical store, the manager can include checking this report in the next shift’s opening procedure. Creating the Z-report must not delay an employee’s move to shelter.

How to record and pay for time during an air raid alert

The employer must determine the legal basis for paying for work stoppage time during an alert. To do this, the employer establishes the actual circumstances: whether the employee performed work, whether downtime occurred, and what caused it. An alert by itself is not grounds for automatically treating this time as unpaid.

The grounds for payment are set out in Article 113 of the KZpP and Article 6 of the Law “On Occupational Safety”. For each case, the employer must record the reason for the stoppage and the conditions that justify applying the relevant guarantee.

Under Article 6, an employee may refuse assigned work if a production situation arises that is dangerous to their life or health, to other people, or to the production environment or the natural environment. The employee must immediately notify their direct manager or employer.

When necessary, occupational safety specialists at the enterprise confirm the hazardous situation with the participation of a representative of the trade union the employee belongs to and an occupational safety insurance expert. If no trade union has been established at the enterprise, an employee-authorized occupational safety representative takes part instead of the union representative.

Exercising this right under the conditions provided by law is not grounds for disciplinary punishment. For the relevant downtime that occurs through no fault of the employee, average earnings are retained.

Under Article 113 of the KZpP, an employee must notify the employer or relevant official when downtime begins, except when the entire enterprise or a structural unit is idle. Managers should therefore state in the instructions whom an employee must notify about an individual work stoppage.

For recordkeeping at a hypothetical store, the responsible employee can note the alert time, when work stopped, which employees were on shift, the reason for the downtime, the all-clear time, and when work actually resumed. The employer documents the decision, its basis, and the payment conditions, while the accountant records the relevant periods in the timesheet. The all-clear and the resumption of trading may occur at different times, for example, if damage is discovered after the alert.

Hypothetical example. During an eight-hour shift, an employee worked for 6.5 hours, while 1.5 hours were recorded as downtime. Assume the tariff rate is UAH 120 per hour and the calculated average earnings are UAH 150 per hour.

At the general minimum, pay for 1.5 hours of downtime would be 120 × 2/3 × 1.5 = UAH 120. If grounds to retain average earnings are established, the amount for that period would be 150 × 1.5 = UAH 225. The remaining 6.5 hours are paid under the employment contract. The employer determines the legal basis based on the circumstances of the event.

During martial law, the parties may agree on an available electronic method for exchanging employment documents under Article 7 of Law No. 2136-IX. This agreement allows the employee and employer to exchange documents by the agreed method.

In areas of active and possible hostilities included in the list approved in accordance with established legal procedures, the employer may independently determine the procedure for employment recordkeeping and archival storage of employment documents. The employer must still ensure reliable records of work performed by employees and labor costs.

Suspension of an employment contract under Article 13 of this Law has a separate legal basis: armed aggression must make it impossible for both parties to fulfill their contractual obligations. A short suspension of trading during an alert does not by itself establish this condition. Nor should the employer automatically record this time as unpaid leave.

How to train a new employee and respond to an injury

Article 18 of the Law “On Occupational Safety” provides for employer-funded instruction and training when employees start work and during employment, including first aid for injured people and conduct during accidents. Employers must not allow employees to work if they have not completed the required training, instruction, and knowledge assessment.

In addition to occupational safety training, Article 20 of the Civil Protection Code requires business entities to train employees in actions during emergencies and special periods, and to conduct drills and training at the facility.

Managers must also ensure that managers and specialists whose work involves organizing and carrying out civil protection measures complete training within the prescribed time at territorial courses or civil protection and life safety training centers.

As a practical addition to properly documented training, the manager of a hypothetical store can walk the shelter route with a new salesperson and ask them to explain what they would do: where they get the alert, what they tell customers, whom they notify when they arrive, and what they do when working alone. This helps the manager check whether the salesperson understood the instructions and explain any unclear actions.

If an employee or visitor is injured, notify emergency services and the manager, follow the dispatcher’s instructions, and provide assistance within your knowledge and training, taking into account any danger at the scene. Article 21 of the Civil Protection Code provides for reporting an emergency, while Article 13 of the Law “On Occupational Safety” requires employers to provide urgent assistance to injured people and, if necessary, involve professional emergency and rescue units.

If the event involves an employee, the employer must arrange an investigation and keep records under Article 22 of the Law “On Occupational Safety.” In a hypothetical case, when it is safe to do so, the responsible employee can record the time, location, witness contact details, and actions already taken to help establish what happened. The employer must also follow the prescribed investigation procedure.

For a hypothetical store, the manager should include in the internal instructions a rule against lingering to watch or photograph or film drones, air defense activity, or military positions. Employees should focus on moving to shelter and helping people.

Sample announcement for customers

After checking the shelter, the manager of a hypothetical store can adapt this announcement by replacing the bracketed details with the specific address and route:

For a spoken announcement at a hypothetical store, a shorter version could be: “An air raid alert has been issued. We are suspending service. Please proceed to the shelter at [address]. The entrance is located [description]. If you need help, please tell an employee.”

Manager’s checklist before, during, and after an alert

For daily operations at a hypothetical store, the manager can use this list together with the approved instructions:

• Before the shift opens, the manager appoints a lead and backup, makes sure employees know the route, checks that exits are accessible, verifies alert systems, and reviews current local instructions.
• When the alert is issued, employees stop serving customers, notify those present, show the route, help people, and proceed to shelter without delaying for sales or property.
• In the shelter, the lead checks in with employees, determines whether anyone needs help, and follows official announcements.
• After the all-clear, the manager follows instructions from authorized authorities and arranges a check for visible signs of damage and whether it is safe to work. If there is damage to the building or equipment, or another hazard, work must not resume until an appropriate inspection is completed and the risk is addressed. If the alert coincided with the end of the store’s working day and the fiscal report receipt was not created, the responsible person creates it no later than the next working day, before new payment transactions begin.
• After work resumes, the responsible person gives the accountant actual work and downtime information, and the manager arranges corrections to any issues with the route, alerts, or division of actions.

How to use Torgsoft’s work time log when recording a work stoppage

According to Torgsoft’s official instructions, basic PC tracking records employees’ arrivals and departures; the text log is available under «Налаштування» (Settings) → «Співробітник» (Employee), on the «Журнал початку / закінчення роботи» (Work start/end log) tab. To set it up, create an employee record, enter the job title, generate a badge barcode, and link the record to a program user. Under «Налаштування» (Settings) → «Користувачі» (Users), select a registration method: «За бейджем» (By badge) or «За використанням програми» (By program use), where sign-in is recorded automatically when the user logs into the program.

If the badge option is selected, the employee scans it under «Налаштування» (Settings) → «Реєстрація робочого часу» (Work time registration) or in the «Реалізація» (Sales) window. A shift cannot be closed remotely for another user, so managers should separately record the actual time work stopped if an employee did not register their departure before going to shelter. At a hypothetical store, the employer can use these records as a starting point for timekeeping, while separately verifying the actual time work stopped and resumed. Entering records into the program must not delay evacuation.

For expanded timekeeping, automatic timesheet completion, and payroll calculation, the paid «Розрахунок зарплати» (Payroll calculation) option must be activated, and the employee’s work schedule must be configured in advance. The employer must review the data to account for the actual stoppage and ensure that this time and its pay are recorded correctly. The employer determines the legal basis for downtime and how it is paid based on the circumstances of the event; arrival and departure records do not automatically justify classifying alert time or reducing pay.

Official sources for store instructions

• Civil Protection Code of Ukraine No. 5403-VI — Articles 20, 21, 32, and 130 define the duties of businesses and citizens, shelter requirements, and action planning.
• Law of Ukraine “On Occupational Safety” No. 2694-XII — Articles 6, 13, 18, and 22 define employee rights, employer duties, training requirements, and accident investigations.
• Labor Code of Ukraine No. 322-VIII — Article 113 sets the rules for paying for downtime.
• Law of Ukraine “On the Organization of Labor Relations under Martial Law” No. 2136-IX — Articles 7 and 13 govern the exchange of employment documents and define the grounds for suspending an employment contract.
• DSNS: actions during an air raid alert — recommendations on alerts, moving to shelter, and waiting for the all-clear.
• State Tax Service: guidance on RRO/PRRO during an air raid alert — recommendations on stopping sales and creating a fiscal report receipt.