A union has called for an “urgent” meeting with Lewisham Council after assaults on customer service workers increased more than threefold according to the latest figures.

Customer service workers reported a significant increase in assaults, with the number of incidents growing from 16 in the 12 months ending July 2017 to 53 in the year ending July 2018.

They also reported a 14 per cent increase in all health and safety incidents compared to the previous 12 months.

Customer service workers are often the main point of contact for Lewisham residents looking to find out more information about a variety of council services.

Unison regional organiser Colin Innis said members had raised their concerns about the “worrying trend” which he blamed on austerity.

“Certain groups are angry and people are now taking it out on council staff,” he explained.

He said Unison had asked Lewisham Council to address the issues in the past.

“Our members come to work to do an important and vital service and they don’t come to work to be in fear,” he said.

He was also concerned that while instances of verbal abuse and threatening behaviour had dropped, from about 56 in the 12 months ending July 2017 to 36 in the 12 months ending July 2018, assaults had increased.

“Instead of just threatening people they are actually being assaulted,” he said.

“It is not going to go away. It is something the employer needs to take more seriously.

“We ask for an urgent meeting with the council to discuss what can be done and to assess this dangerous change.”

A Lewisham Council spokesperson said frontline staff had received support to improve reporting of incidents, which may have contributed to the increase.

““It’s unacceptable for staff to be threatened or assaulted in the course of doing their jobs and over the past year we have been doing a lot of work with frontline staff to support them in handling difficult situations and improve the reporting of such incidents.

“The success of this work has resulted in staff feeling more confident to report incidents which may have contributed to an increase on last year’s figures along with the better reporting of this type of incident.”

They said the increase in assaults was discussed at a recent meeting.

“We have regular meetings on health and safety with union representation. At a recent meeting, the increase in the number of reported incidents in the customer services directorate was reviewed and discussed and no concerns were raised by the unions. However we are more than happy to discuss the issue with them.”

The number of overall incidents at the council had decreased overall by two per cent, according to the report.

The figures come as part of a Lewisham Council report on accident and incident statistics.