By Dominic Giannini in Canberra

Shoppers are being warned not to abuse retail workers during the holiday rush as details of shocking abuse are revealed.

Nine in 10 retail and fast-food workers have been verbally abused in the past 12 months and one in four had been subjected to physical violence, a survey from the retail, fast food and warehouse workers union revealed.

Physical violence against workers appears to be on the rise, with the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association survey of 3000 people showing it had doubled since a 2023 survey and tripled since 2021.

A third said they had been abused or harassed because of their ethnicity, race or cultural background.

More than half said they had been abused by the same customer more than once, one in five said they had experienced sexual harassment and one in 10 said they had been spat on.

The union’s national secretary Gerard Dwyer has called for urgent intervention, saying governments need to introduce workplace protection orders to ban repeat offenders from stores.

Such orders had proved successful in reducing retail crime in the ACT, he said, as he called on NSW and Victoria to expedite their introduction.

The orders are set to be introduced in South Australia and Western Australia but there’s no timeline for the two most populous states.

“These statistics show there can be no excuse for further delay,” Mr Dwyer said.

“They are ‘win win win’ – a win for retail workers, a win for shoppers and a win for the police who will have less crime to deal with.

“We all know the festive season can be incredibly stressful for people, but there’s never an excuse for taking your frustrations out on workers who are simply trying to do their job.”

Assistant Treasury Minister Andrew Leigh has also put retail giants on notice ahead of the Christmas rush, warning them to stamp out dodgy practices ripping off consumers and flogging unsafe products.

Retailers who make false or misleading representations can face penalties of up to $50 million.

Shoppers have been warned to watch out for misleading countdown timers of limited-time offer claims to pressure them into buying something, and store-wide or site-wide sale claims when not everything is discounted.

Unsafe products or misleading ads can be reported to the consumer watchdog, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

“Australians deserve confidence that the gifts they buy are safe and the savings they see are real,” Mr Leigh said.