BUSINESS leaders have spoken of the need to tackle violence and verbal abuse in the workplace after a survey revealed that 70,000 people were assaulted last year while doing their jobs.

Bill McCardle, spokesman for Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce, said: "With the pressure that members of staff are under managers need to keep an eye on this."

The report written by the University of Central Lancashire and the Lawrence Allison Group, a recruitment and training company, estimates that last year there were about 70,000 assaults in the workplace.

Mr McCardle said: "They (victims of assault) should notify the police immediately and it should be reported to the personnel officer."

However, the report's authors admit that the actual total may be higher saying: "These figures are only the very minimum levels, since many incidents go unreported."

The report also claims that there were nearly 14,000 incidents of verbal abuse last year.

A spokesman for Wycombe District Council said that physical assaults on staff were quite rare but council employees suffered verbal assaults on a daily basis.

He added: "All relevant staff receive training on handling aggression, and certain members of staff, for example, cashiers are trained in how to deal with armed hold-ups."

The report encourages employers to keep records of complaints of assaults and to establish a complaints procedure, something the Thames Valley Chamber of Commerce supports.

There were 2,379 incidents of physical assault and 46 extreme cases of assault with a weapon, according to the survey.

Dan Dolby, president of Wycombe Trades Union Council, said: "I am certainly aware of it happening more and more in hospitals and I think that it is becoming more important."

Ranjit Dheer, director of Wycombe Race Equality Council, said: "I think most of the problems we have are about verbal abuse and name calling.

"I had one case when a worker of Caribbean origin was threatened with a gun. We wanted to know why the police were not called."

Mr Dheer said that the problem sometimes arose in smaller firms.

He said: "Small firms cannot afford the expense of personnel advisers.

"We would be only too pleased to assist them."