MINISTERS were urged to ban filming shop staff in their workplace without consent as Usdaw warned of an “epidemic” of social media abuse today.

Staff are suffering daily “ritual humiliation” for so-called internet prank videos, the Labour-affiliated union’s annual conference warned.

Usdaw deputy general secretary Rab Donnelly told delegates in Blackpool: “Whether it is attacks, threats or so-called pranks — which aren’t funny at all — this is intimidation.

“This is an invasion of privacy, this is outright cruelty when you’re already in a vulnerable situation.

“This behaviour is becoming an epidemic: ritual humiliation of people who are trying to do their job.

“Retail workers across the UK have been bullied, intimidated and humiliated on a daily basis.”

Delegates raised safety concerns for domestic abuse victims and their children as they told of being covertly filmed by customers with glasses with built-in filming equipment. They passed a motion calling for the ban.