One In Ten Shop Workers Physically Assaulted At Work

Usdaw, the shop worker's union, has found that a shocking one in ten of all shop workers has been physically assaulted at work.

In a special survey of its members, the union also found that almost one in three shop workers (29%) has experienced verbal abuse in the last month, and that one in three employees (32%) has been threatened in the last year.

Usdaw General Secretary John Hannett said that this was totally unnacceptible: "Shop workers are all too often assaulted, threatened and abused in the course of their work. They're in a pressurised environment, particularly in the run-up to Christmas time with increased sales and more stressed-out-customers.

"Customers can get very frustrated over long queues or if the item they want is out of stock and they take it out on the shop worker."