"Australia’s retail and fast food workers face ‘epidemic’ levels of abuse and harassment", 31 July 2019

Retail workers are being spat at, verbally abused and threatened with physical violence as part of their daily jobs, in what has been labelled an “epidemic”.

Across front-line workers in retail stores, supermarkets and fast food restaurants, 85 per cent of staff say they’ve been verbally abused by a customer – and 14 per cent say they’ve been victims of physical violence...

...Staff at a Melbourne Woolworths have been the subject of violent attacks...Despite these outbursts, the supermarket removed permanent security guards and only reinstated them temporarily...

...Woolworths...in a statement said: “The safety and wellbeing of team members is our priority and our teams should not have to accept customer abuse in any circumstance... we recognise there is always more we can do”...

McDonald’s has also been accused of not doing enough to protect its staff...as violence and abuse continues to plague its drive-through operations...

...A McDonald’s spokesperson said: “The vast majority of our customers are incredibly respectful, but unfortunately inappropriate customer behaviour is something all retailers deal with from time to time.”...