DOZENS of supermarket staff have suffered abuse as two major Australian grocery chains struggled to impose a ban on single-use plastic bags, with one irate customer putting his hands around a shop assistant’s throat.

Woolworths and Coles last year announced plans to voluntarily remove free lightweight plastic bags from their stores nationally and instead offer more environmentally friendly reusable bags for A$0.15 (11 U.S. cents) each.

The Coles ban came into force Sunday. Woolworths’ took effect June 20, but the company was forced to delay the move by 10 days after customers complained, with staff bearing the brunt of their anger.

A survey by the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees’ Association — the union that represents shop assistants — showed that of the 141 members employed by the two chains to respond so far, 61 said they had been subjected to abusive behavior.

It included a worker being assaulted by a customer after being told there were no free plastic bags at a store in Western Australia state.

“A male customer in the self-serve area swore loudly at a female worker,” the union’s assistant secretary Ben Harris said yesterday. “She provided him with some complimentary bags and apologized.”

The customer then made a mistake by scanning an item twice, but when the same worker came to help him, “he walked up behind her and put his hands around her throat,” Harris said.

Other customers have thrown grocery items on the floor and stormed off after swearing at staff.

“While we understand that some customers may be frustrated by this change, there is absolutely no excuse for abusive or violent behavior towards retail staff,” Gerard Dwyer, the union’s national secretary said in a statement. (SD-Agencies)