Nearly 2,000 shop workers are assaulted each year and many more receive verbal abuse from customers, a trade union claimed yesterday.
Mandate, which represents 36,000 retail workers in the Republic, said members were being subjected to increased levels of violence, verbal abuse and threatening behaviour from members of the public.
It called for combined action by the Government, employers and unions to address the problem, and has sought a meeting with the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern.
Ms Mary Larkin, the union's outgoing president, told delegates to its biennial conference in Ennis, Co Clare, that each year an estimated 1,800 shop workers were assaulted.
This estimate, for the Republic, was based on a study carried out in Britain by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Administrative Workers (USDAW).
Drawing on the figures for Britain, Mandate estimated that 5,400 retail workers in the Republic experienced threatening behaviour from customers, said Ms Larkin, who works in the retail trade.
It estimated that 7,500 shop workers were the victims of verbal abuse from members of the public.
There was no clear policy or code of practice in place to deal with the issue in Ireland, other than "the old truism that 'the customer is always right'", she said.
"In cases where staff report incidences of abuse perpetrated by customers towards employees, management invariably take the side of the customer."
Mandate's members in the retail trade were demanding that employers take action "to put an end to this state of affairs", she said.
"Violence, abuse and intimidation 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 were working longer hours as a result of 24-hour opening in many stores and were working under increasingly pressurised conditions, Ms Larkin said.
As well as a code of practice on the issue for employers and unions, Mandate wished to see a campaign organised by all stakeholders to raise awareness of the problem.
Ms Larkin said the union had written to Mr Ahern, seeking a meeting about the issue, and had also asked the employers' body, IBEC, and the Health and Safety Authority to become involved in the campaign.
The involvement of these bodies was needed "in order to adopt a combined approach and an agreed framework to ensure that shop workers receive greater protection in the workplace in the face of growing incidences of violence and abuse".
