44.4 per cent of retail or fast food workers having experienced either verbal or physical abuse from a customer, according to the Shop Distributive and Allied Employees' Association

Rossies Foodworks manager, Ross Catanzariti has seen some fairly irate customers in his time.

“I have had milk poured over me and have been spat on,” he said

“We are in the position where if we see someone leaving the store with a bag of goods they haven’t paid for we are made out to be the bad guys.”

According to Mr Catanzariti the most common cause driving customers to become aggressive is when they are forced to wait to be served.

He also suggested anger can often be fuelled when the goods customers have purchased do not meet the desired standard.

“Since we are the front line we are the ones that get hit the most,” he said.

While Mr Catanzariti doesn’t deny it happens he feels the statistics don’t accurately represent the Griffith area.

“I don’t think that number would be representative,” he said.

“We encourage our staff to look after the customer and their needs.

“If they can do that, there shouldn’t be any issues.

“Workers have had things thrown at them whether that be money or items but these instances are few and far between.”

The manager feels if more people are aware and showed patience the issues of irate customers would decrease.

However he strongly condemns any physical or verbal abuse towards staff. 

“We understand once people want to leave they want to do it quickly,” he said.

“In certain situations, it is just not possible especially when we are experiencing busier days as we do around the Christmas period.

“We ask the staff to do their best in situations like these and hope that the public understands we want the same thing as them.”