Surging customer aggression aimed at retail workers is expected to intensify this Christmas with cost-of-living stress, a new survey has revealed.
Thousands of retail workers reported in a survey by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association (SDA) that they feel unsafe at work, with 87 per cent experiencing verbal abuse from customers this year.
Retail workers facing physical violence from customers surged to 12.5 per cent this year from 8 per cent in 2021, while online abuse towards workers doubled in the same period, the survey revealed.
Nearly a quarter of workers reported they faced harassment because of their ethnicity or cultural background, the survey found.
Abuse of retail workers has not improved in recent years despite growing efforts from state governments and trade unions to tackle customer aggression, the SDA found.
If you are a retail worker who has experienced customer abuse and would like to share your story, contact rose.wood@nine.com.au.
Customer abuse will likely intensify this Christmas season because of the cost of living pressures facing shoppers, Professor Nitika Garg, a consumer behaviour researcher from the University of NSW, said.
“Consumers are experiencing increased stress and frustration because they are financially stretched or not able to meet the cost of living crisis,” she said.
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“Because of that increased negative emotion and frustration, they are unfortunately taking it out on the closest person to the big bad corporations that they see are partly responsible for the situation, which are the frontline retail workers.”
Garg said retailers and the Australian Retailers Association (ARA) can increase the safety of workplaces for retail workers this Christmas by bringing messages of respectful behaviour to the forefront in stores.
“It’s important to distinguish the frontline employee from the corporation,” she said.
“Even if you’re angry at the corporation, that does not mean you can take it out on the frontline workers.
“If they are asking to see the receipt or check your cart, it’s nothing personal, it’s their responsibility.”
A new safety council will soon be established in Australia to counter the rising abuse, with the SDA, the ARA, and other major retailers and shopping centres announcing plans this month.
“All retail workers have a right to feel safe at work and the wellbeing of this vital workforce has a flow-on effect to the wellbeing of many others in our community,” ARA chief executive Paul Zahra said.
