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A Melbourne Bunnings employee says the stores are so full some staff fear coming to work due to the risk of catching COVID-19.

"We've had record sales for the last week,"he said.

"The store's packed. We're trying to implement social distancing but there's no calculation on square meterage of the store,there's no counting of people coming in and out,there's too many people in the elevator at once and there's not much being done to protect staff.

"It's making St Kilda beach look like a joke ... We've got people bringing families in for a family excursion."

The worker said customers were buying items such as pot plants and paint.

"The nursery's going crazy,"he said."They're buying potting mix,seedlings and pot plants – and paint."

Some of his colleagues were refusing to come to work due to fears for their health,the worker said.

"We're getting similar levels of exposure to the public as what the health sector is getting now – for hardware."

Bunnings managing director Mike Schneider said further social distancing measures were being implemented,particularly at busier stores over the weekend.

"This could be anything from fewer checkouts in operation,to limiting customer numbers in-store,"he said.

"We know this is a challenging time for everyone and we’ve been encouraging open communication with our team,particularly through our internal workplace channel,and just today,shared another video with further examples of how our store teams can implement social distancing with customers and each other.

"We’re not perfect,but we’ve got over 300 stores and over 42,000 team members across Australia and we are doing our very best to support them and communicate with them."

He said management was working with staff,particularly older workers and those more vulnerable,to be as flexible as possible.

"We continue to follow government advice and we’ve made a lot of changes in-store as we work to ensure the safety of our team and customers and operate in a responsible way,"Mr Schneider said.

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