From December 2016 to February 2017 the SDA conducted an online survey about abuse and violence experienced by retail and fast food workers at work.

Over 6,000 retail and fast food workers responded to our online survey.

Key facts from the survey:

• Over 85% of respondents have been subjected to verbal abuse from a customer in the last 12 months.
• 24% of respondents subjected to verbal abuse say it happens every week.
• 34% of respondents said they had felt threatened by a customer 1-2 times in the last 12 months.
• 14% of respondents have experienced physical violence from a customer.
• 12% of respondents said the incidents of customer abuse or violence involved behaviour by a customer that was sexual in nature.
• 62% of respondents said customer abuse was generally perpetrated by both male and female customers.
• 65% of respondents work on cashier/front end/service/registers.
• 74% of respondents are female.
• 64% of respondents said they had not received any training in the last 12 months on how to deal with threatening situations that includes abusive or violent customers.
• 51% of respondents said no action was taken after they reported an incident.