Coles says incidents involving verbal abuse and physical attacks against its staff in Victoria have risen sharply over the past two years, with the reported increase reaching 85%.
The reports, citing worker accounts, describe a near-doubling in both verbal and physical assaults during the period. The coverage focuses on the scale of the change and positions it as an emerging workplace safety concern for supermarket employees in Victoria. Both outlets present the same overall figure and timeframe, describing heightened aggression faced by staff rather than detailing specific locations, dates, or individual cases.
Neither article attributes the rise to a particular cause or provides separate perspectives from Coles, police, or workplace safety bodies. The difference is mainly in outlet framing, but the core information—an 85% surge in verbal and physical attacks on Coles staff in Victoria over two years—is consistent across both sources.
