Nowadays lone working in convenience stores is one of the main forms of work. Welfare, safety and health at work must be paid on especially attention when employees’ working alone. In this work was mainly health and safety legislation was explored and in the Oulu region from convenience store workers' point of view. This work was prepared in cooperation with the Service Union United PAM Oulu office. The idea for the thesis topic was originated many years ago based on my 'own experiences of lone working.

The research questions of the study were as follows: 1) What are the obligations set for the employment relationship parties to guarantee safety when working alone.2) What safety challenges are there when working alone? 3) How safety can be improved when working alone? The research method of the work was juridical so the theory background was mainly based on legislation and administrative recommendations. The main source of this study was Occupational Safety and Health Act (23.8.2002/738). Moreover this study was used applied juridical literature. Occupational Safety and Health Act emphasizes unprompted of workplace safety management. It provides regulations on how the workplace should function. The employer has the primary responsibility. The Act also emphasizes the collaboration between employers’ and employees’. Employee has a key role in the realization of workplace safety.

The practical aspect is based on the opinion from Oulu region convenience store workers'. The practical part of study was carried out using a statistical method. The results were collected by designing a questionnaire. The Service Union United PAM also contributed to the questionnaire design. Results of the survey were collected in the autumn of 2012.

The research showed that responses were received from many areas and the employees’ were mainly females, who work in permanent and had been working in the field for a long time. Feeling of insecurity were found from each area. The most threatening situations were caused shoplifters and drug users. The scariest situations experienced were bullying. Workplace was orientation generally managed well. Conclusion in results is that security situation is generally speaking good. There were some concerning for example orientation to violence. Lone working was not preferred, because it had the possibility of having to face threatening and violent situations. The study also pointed out that haste was experienced to deteriorate the employee’s safety. The response rate was low. With a higher response rate, we'd could have been drawn more reliable conclusions.