'I've been punched, spat at and threatened with a knife'

One attack by a shoplifter on Mr Fowler was captured on CCTV

A former shop worker who was repeatedly assaulted and threatened with a knife has backed a campaign urging shoppers to treat staff with kindness and respect.

Michael Fowler left retail in January after seven years after experiencing attacks and abuse from customers on an almost daily basis.

A new survey by the Retail Trust showed 43% of shop workers are shouted at, spat on, threatened or hit every week.

The trust's Let's Respect Retail campaign is calling on shoppers to "help restore humanity to the high street" this Christmas.

Michael Fowler left retail after seven years after constant antisocial behaviour by customers

Mr Fowler, 25, who managed a shop in Dundee, said abusive customers should remember shop workers "are human beings as well as everybody else".

He told BBC Breakfast: "I've been punched, I've been spat at, I've had people lunge at me with knives.

"Over the seven years I worked in retail, it just got worse and worse."

One incident, where an aggressive shoplifter tries to flee the shop while struggling with Mr Fowler, was captured on CCTV.

Mr Fowler said: "I'd been alerted to a member of the public in the store filling a basket quite aggressively, heading for the exit, you can tell they're a shoplifter.

"I tried to recover the goods, but it didn't go plain sailing. When I was at that store specifically that was happening multiple times a day.

"A lot of my colleagues have really, really suffered. It's a minimum wage job, you don't expect the abuse and the violence that you see every day."

Mr Fowler said that he now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and nightmares as a result of the abuse.

He said: "I could never work in a customer-facing role again.

"I feel like there's not enough protection in place for staff, it's not something that you want to experience."

He has backed the Let's Respect Retail campaign.

Mr Fowler said: "I think, the more it's spoken about, the more people maybe will be that little bit more conscious when they're speaking to and engaging with retail workers."

The Retail Trust said 77% of shop staff have experienced intimidating behaviour in the last year and 23% were physically assaulted according to a new anonymous survey of 1,000 UK retail workers.

The charity said it was a rise of 10% on last year, when 33% told the trust they were experiencing weekly verbal or physical assaults.

The trust said 45% of those surveyed felt the abuse had worsened in the last two years.

Cliff Lee, the charity's director of wellbeing services told BBC Good Morning Scotland that abusive behaviour towards shop workers was "becoming normalised."

He said: "The reason for our campaign is that we want to start to address that through encouraging shoppers to think about the person that is serving them.

"Ultimately behind every statistic there is is a person like Michael that is being adversely affected and the impact is far-reaching.

"People's mental health is deteriorating, people are leaving the retail sector.

"As a nation of shoppers and shop owners, ultimately the retail sector should be a really vibrant place for us."

Mr Lee said he hoped the new campaign would make a difference to people's attitude to shop workers.

He said: "We should really enjoy that Christmas experience in store.

"And certainly all we're encouraging people to do is think about their behaviour in store.

"You know, even simple acts, such as a smile, a thank-you, hello to the person that's serving them, can go a long, long way to make a real difference."