Some 1,800 shop workers are assaulted in the State each year and thousands more receive verbal abuse from customers, the trade union Mandate has claimed.
The union, which represents 36,000 retail workers in the Republic, called on employers, unions and the Government to work together to provide greater protection to workers from such violence.
The call was made at the union's biennial delegate conference today in Ennis, Co Clare.
Outgoing Mandate president Ms Mary Larkin said shop workers are now being subjected to "increased incidences of violence, verbal abuse and threatening behaviour from members of the general public".
"There is evidence that retail workers, who represent 16 per cent of the Irish workforce are being subjected to unacceptable levels of physical violence, threats of violence and verbal abuse from customers."
She said one the basis of figures released by Mandate's sister union in Britain, USDAW, Mandate estimated 1,800 shop workers were assaulted in the past year in Ireland.
In addition, some 5,400 workers experienced threatening behaviour from customers and almost 7,500 were the victims of verbal abuse.
"Our members working in the retail trade are demanding that employers take action to put an end to this state of affairs.
"Violence, intimidation and abuse from members of the public should not be regarded as an occupational hazard for shop workers.
"We are also calling on our customers, some of whom appear to find it acceptable to abuse shop workers, to show more respect to those working in the retail trade. Shop workers are now working longer hours as a result of 24-hour opening in many stores, and are working under increasingly pressurised conditions."
Ms Larkin said there was no clear policy or code of practice in place in the Irish retail trade to deal with the issue and that when such incidents were reported by workers, management "invariably take the side of the customer".
She said Mandate had written to the Taoiseach requesting a meeting on the issue. The union has also asked IBEC and the Health and Safety Authority to become involved in order to find an agreed framework and a "combined approach" to violence against retail workers.