SOCIAL media has emboldened customers to abuse shop and call centre staff, Usdaw general secretary Paddy Lillis has warned.

Speaking at the union’s annual conference today, he told of his disappointment that “violence, threats and abuse” of retail workers remains a key issue, despite more than 20 years of campaigning by the union.

He said: “Our members at call centres have difficult and demanding jobs.

“Unfortunately, abuse is something we have seen more of — with the  popularity of social media, people just hide behind a screen or phone and then feel emboldened to inflict the most appalling abuse.”

He said the culprits have been focussing their abuse on smaller stores as they see them as “more vulnerable.”

Delegates passed a motion calling on bosses to tackle the issue.

It said Usdaw should engage with owners of smaller community shops to address “the spiralling instances of abuse and violence in these stores, especially looking at preventative measures.”

The motion also called for the union to lobby ministers on introducing a new law which makes it mandatory for companies to play an automated message warning callers that verbal abuse of call centre staff would not be tolerated.

Dundee Tesco call centre delegate Stephen Smith said: “I’ve worked in a call centre for 27 years and never has it been so bad for abusive calls.

“Unless you have experienced this abuse then you’ve no idea what impact it has.”

West Lothian delegate Finn Marshall said: “It’s as if customers forget that there is a human at the end of the line.”

Cardiff Central delegate Ratkima Sarkar tearfully told of how she suffered verbal abuse from a customer to whom she had refused to serve alcohol due to lack of ID.