SHOPWORKERS are suffering alarming levels of abuse and assaults, mainly associated with increasing rates of shoplifting, their union has said.

The warning comes during Respect for Shopworkers’ Week, an annual initiative by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (Usdaw), which represents about 350,000 staff.

The union said a national survey revealed that 65 per cent of shop staff have been verbally abused in the last year, 42 per cent were threatened and 5 per cent were physically assaulted.