The holidays can be a tense time as the country rushes to polish off all the last-minute, forgotten errands before celebrating with loved ones.

Unfortunately, some Australians are taking that stress out on the people working to help them.

As customer aggression spikes through the Christmas shopping period, the Australian Retailers Association and the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association (SDA) are pleading for civility and mutual respect.

So far during this year’s Christmas shopping period, retail stores have reported confrontations including:

• A worker threatened with physical violence and threats made against their life
• A retail worker flashed by a customer at work
• Customers becoming abusive when denied discounts
• A customer pulling a knife on a staff member
• A customer throwing a product at a staff member because their refund was refused.

ARA chief executive Paul Zahra said a lingering labour shortage and a hectic holiday period have created a “recipe for disaster”, and urged shoppers to be considerate if confronted with service “hiccups” or long queues.

“Unfortunately, retailers have been subjected to more than their fair share of aggression and vitriol during the pandemic. We would have hoped for that to subside by now,” he said.

“Nobody deserves to cop a spray for doing their job … I just hope that people remember a lot of these staff are also young, in their first jobs, and we want them to have a pleasant and encouraging experience as they begin their working life.”

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Customer abuse sparks security measures

National Retail Association research in 2020 found more than 88 per cent of retail workers were victims of physical or verbal abuse from customers.

This has prompted major retailers like Woolworths, Target and Bunnings to conduct body-camera trials in select locations across the past two years.

SDA national secretary Gerard Dwyer said there is no excuse for abusing retail and fast-food workers.

“No one deserves to turn up to work with the fear of being abused,” he said.

“We’ve also found young workers, women and workers from diverse linguistic backgrounds can be disproportionately singled out for mistreatment.

“This Christmas season, make sure to stay calm and show kindness to workers and fellow shoppers – and make it a joyful season for everyone.”

Abuse rife in air travel sector

Retail workers are not the only ones to cop customer abuse, with airlines and airports reporting fits of “air rage” throughout the year.

From March to September, the Australian Federal Police was called to 473 incidents at Melbourne Airport alone, including 30 cases of offensive behaviour or intoxication, 195 cases of public disturbance, and 18 incidents relating to assault as travellers let loose over travel mishaps such as missed flights, delays and lost baggage.

This time last year, Andrea Quinn, AFP Acting Assistant Commissioner Specialist Protective Command, said the festive season was the ideal time to revive security measures as more people travelled.

“The AFP has zero tolerance for any dangerous or antisocial behaviour and works tirelessly to ensure the safety of the travelling community,” she said.

“So as you head off on a well-deserved break these holidays – please remember, the silly season does not extend to behaviour in airports.”