A recent survey conducted by Usdaw, a shopworkers’ union, revealed that shopworkers have to suffer verbal abuse as well as physical assault at the hands of customers during Christmas time. According to the survey, nearly 30% of workers have suffered some kind of verbal abuse in the last month while nearly 33% have endured intimidation during the last year. The union states that this trend rises considerably during festival months, where the shopper is frustrated and tired and he/she takes it out on the poor shopworker.

According to Usdaw, most customers become violent when they are asked to show some kind of age proof while selling alcohol or other such similar products, which are required to be sold only to people of a certain age group. Customers find such age verification extremely demeaning and often tend to pressurise shopworkers into selling the products by intimidating them.

Such altercations are more common during Christmas time, where the customer is already frustrated with the long queues and sometimes by the non-availability of a particular item. Shopworkers are usually on the receiving end of such frustration and have to face assaults - either verbal or physical - from such customers.

In an attempt to reduce such occurrences, Usdaw has decided to start a campaign called “Keep your cool at Christmas”, where customers will be urged not to display their tempers publicly. Moreover, the union is also asking employers to take all measures possible to reduce verbal and physical abuse on workers, including the placing of CCTV monitors, which will help both shopworkers as well as customers.

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