November 23, 2009
Study Shows Shopworkers Bear the Brunt of Verbal and Physical Abuse
In a recent study conducted by Usdaw, it has been seen that one in every ten shop worker has been at the receiving end of physical abuse at their workplace.
The study also revealed a few statistics- 29% of shopworkers have been verbally abused in the last month alone, and 32 % have been threatened in some way or the other in the past one year. It was seen that the most common cause for the abuse was asking the customers their age. The shopworkers at Usdaw disclosed that they have been verbally attacked, sworn at, and even physically intimidated for rejecting customers’ demands for alcohol or other products that have age restrictions.
John Hannett, Usdaw General Secretary, said that there have been many instances where shopworkers have been abused by the customers. He said that such abuse is more prevalent before Christmas time when the atmosphere becomes tenser as the customers are more anxious and sales go up. If customers have to wait for too long or if the item that they require is not available, then they tend to take it out on the shop worker.
Usdaw is organizing ‘Respect Week’ across shops in the
