8 in 10 Workers Abused at Work in the Past Year, TUC Survey Finds

There are phrases in our industry that should have been retired years ago, and “it’s just part of the job” is near the top of my list. I’ve heard it from a shop worker after a customer threw a bottle at her. I’ve heard it from a bus driver who had been spat at twice in one shift. I’ve heard it from a nurse who, when I asked why she hadn’t reported being shoved against a wall, looked at me with genuine puzzlement and said: “What would they actually do?”

That phrase, and the resignation behind it, is exactly what new TUC research has put numbers to. And those numbers should stop every employer in their tracks.

What Did the TUC’s Violence at Work Survey Find?

The TUC surveyed 5,004 workers and published the findings on 17 April 2026 to coincide with its Violence at Work conference. Eight in ten respondents (82%) had experienced some form of abuse or violence at work in the previous 12 months. More than 8 in 10 (84.1%) were in public-facing roles.

In the last year:

• 79.1% had experienced verbal abuse — shouting, insults, threats.
• 44.9% had been threatened with physical harm.
• 19.4% had been physically assaulted.
• 9.9% had experienced sexual harassment or sexual violence at work.

More than half (51.4%) of those affected said it happens weekly or more often. The largest groups represented were transport workers (38.9%), central or local government staff (14.9%), education (11.8%), prisons and secure facilities (9.9%), and health and social care (4.9%). Customers (45.9%) and passengers (36.4%) were named most often as the source, but it’s worth noting that 9.2% identified colleagues and 8.5% identified managers as perpetrators.

Why Do So Many Incidents Never Get Reported?

For me, this is the finding that should pull every safety manager up sharp: of those who didn’t report what happened to them, 51.9% said it was because violence is seen as “part of the job”, and 33.7% said they didn’t believe it would be taken seriously.

If your workforce believes nothing will happen when they report an incident, your incident data is fiction. You are not measuring safety; you are measuring willingness to be heard.

I spent the early part of my career in environmental health enforcement, and I’ve spent the years since helping organisations build out their safety systems. The pattern is consistent: where reporting culture is weak, leadership tends to interpret empty inboxes as good news. They aren’t. They’re a warning that the workforce could potentially have stopped trusting the system.

What Does the Law Require Employers to Do About Violence at Work?

From a legal position, I think some employers genuinely don’t realise how broad it is. Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, you have a duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of your employees so far as is reasonably practicable. The HSE defines work-related violence as “any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work.” That definition deliberately includes verbal abuse, threats, and online and telephone abuse, and is not exclusive to physical assault.

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 then require you to carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for any significant hazard. Where there is a foreseeable risk of violence — in retail, hospitality, transport, healthcare, education, local government, anywhere your people deal with the public — violence is a significant hazard. The HSE has been consistent on this point: a risk assessment that ignores it is not suitable and sufficient, and the regulator can and does prosecute.

The TUC has flagged that HSE funding has been cut by more than 50% since 2010, and that inspector numbers and enforcement actions are at historic lows. That is a real and serious systemic problem. But I’d gently push back on any employer who reads that as breathing room. Civil claims, employment tribunal claims, sector regulatory scrutiny, insurance liability, retention damage, and the consequences of getting this wrong sit well beyond the HSE’s door.

Five Things Every Health and Safety Lead Should Do This Quarter

Drawing on what the TUC data shows and what I’ve seen work in practice across hundreds of client organisations, here is what I’d be putting on the agenda right now.

1. Audit Your Risk Assessment for the Word “Violence”

Pull your most recent assessment for any public-facing or lone-working role and look for it. If violence isn’t named as a hazard — with verbal abuse, threats, third-party aggression and online abuse all sitting under it — your assessment is almost certainly not suitable and sufficient. Fix that before anything else.

2. Test Whether Your Reporting Route Is Actually Used

Compare the number of incidents in your reporting system to what you hear anecdotally from line managers, union reps or customer complaints. Anonymous reporting channels and clear feedback loops on what happened after a report are likely to help close any potential gaps.

3. Train For De-Escalation, Not Just for the Aftermath

Most violence-at-work training I’ve audited focuses on what to do once an incident has occurred. Useful, but late. Conflict resolution and de-escalation training equips frontline staff to stop incidents before they reach the threshold of harm. In transport, retail and healthcare in particular, this is one of the highest-return investments an employer can make.

4. Treat Verbal Abuse as a Leading Indicator

Persistent verbal abuse is not the absence of physical harm; it’s a pattern that tends to precede it. Track it. Trend it. If a particular site, route, shift or queue point is generating repeated verbal incidents, that’s your early warning system telling you to redesign the environment, the staffing or the process.

5. Get Senior Leadership to Say the Words Out Loud

This is the cultural piece, and it matters more than any control measure. When a Chief Executive, Director or senior NHS leader says publicly — to staff, not in a press release — that abuse is not part of the job at this organisation, and we will act when it happens, reporting rates rise and tolerance for poor behaviour drops. Silence at the top is read as permission.

Why This Matters Beyond the Headline Figure

The pattern in the TUC data sits inside a broader shift I’ve been watching for several years. Public-facing work has become harder. Cost of living pressure longer waits for services, frustration spilling over at the people staffing the counter or driving the bus, none of that is the worker’s fault, and none of it should land on their body or their mental health.

International evidence reinforces the point. Peer-reviewed research published in the Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment and Health has linked repeated exposure to workplace violence with elevated risk of PTSD, depression, cardiovascular disease and long-term sickness absence. This shows up on sickness records, on retention figures and on insurance claims.

If we treat workplace violence with the same rigour we apply to slips, trips, working at height or hazardous substances, the response writes itself: identify the hazard, assess the risk, apply the hierarchy of control, train your people, monitor what’s happening, review and improve.

Frequently Asked Questions | Violence at Work

What Counts as Work-Related Violence Under UK Law?

The HSE defines work-related violence as any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work. This includes verbal abuse, threats, intimidation and online or telephone abuse — not only physical assault.

Does An Employer Have to Risk Assess for Violence at Work?

Yes, where the risk is foreseeable. Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, employers must carry out a suitable and sufficient risk assessment for significant hazards. In any role with public, patient, passenger or service-user contact, work-related violence is a foreseeable hazard and must be assessed.

Which Sectors Are Most Affected by Workplace Violence in The UK?

The TUC’s 2026 survey shows transport (38.9% of respondents), central or local government (14.9%), education (11.8%), prisons and secure facilities (9.9%), and health and social care (4.9%) reporting the highest exposure. Retail, hospitality and lone-working roles also carry well-documented risk.

Can The HSE Prosecute Employers Over Workplace Violence?

Yes. The HSE can and does take enforcement action against employers who fail to manage foreseeable risks of violence. Sector-specific regulators and police enforcement may also be involved, depending on the nature of the incident.

I write This Week in Health and Safety to give safety leads, line managers and OSH professionals a practitioner’s read on the stories shaping our industry. Not just the headlines, but what they actually mean for your risk assessments, your training plans and your people.

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