There’s been a rise in abuse of retail workers across the country, with more than 88 per cent of employees claiming to have been verbally and even physically abused in the last year.
The statistic comes from a survey conducted by the Retail Association and Shop, Distributive & Allied Employees Association (SDA), which showed that the abuse is impacting the mental health and wellbeing of retail workers.
More than 88 per cent of surveyed members experienced verbal abuse from a customer in the past year, impacting their mental and physical wellbeing, the report found.
Woolworths checkout operator, Maddy Steel said the amount of customer abuse felt like it had reached a new level.
“The abuse has never been so high, it’s close to every shift that we get abused over something it’s gotten to the point where we even have training and wear a body camera,” she said.
Ms Steel said she had received training to help deal with tricky situations and to ensure team safety.
“We are always told to act calm. They even have introduced the 5 C’s for survival, which is basically calm, cooperate, communicate, conserve and complete,” she said.
Ms Steel also said that there are times when workers will go home in tears due to the abuse they faced from customers
“Sometimes I’m leaving work in tears and crying in my car going home and it’s even worse because customers know we can’t do anything to stop them,” she said.
According to the Australian Retailer Association, there has been an agreement to establish a Retail Employee Safety Council to address the rising incidents of customer abuse and violence.
Retail worker Vicki Lennon said the rise in abuse was a concern.
“At some places companies have had to increase security and provide more training for team members,” she said.
Ms Lennon further added that despite all the training, it still wasn’t enough to resolve the issue.
“No amount of training can prevent these situations,” she said.
According to HR Leader, indicents rates are increasing in NSW, including complaints of intimidation, stalking, and harassment of retail workers spiking both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.