DUBLIN (Reuters) - Irish bank workers are being spat at and threatened with physical violence by customers who are incensed at scandals in the industry, a union said on Thursday.
The IBOA, which represents over 20,000 workers in Ireland's financial sector, said staff at banks had been facing growing abuse.
"We are seeing this kind of abuse not just in the working day but even socially in the evening," said IBOA general secretary Larry Broderick.
"Many of our members now are saying that they are reluctant to go out in the evening or indeed to identify themselves as bank workers," he told public broadcaster RTE.
A slew of banking scandals and government plans to spend billions of euros bailing the sector out have generated resentment among ordinary Irish people, many of whom are struggling to pay large mortgages in the face of recession and falling property prices.
Jessie Doherty, a bank official with an Allied Irish Banks branch, said the behaviour of some customers was hugely upsetting.
"Ordinary rank and file bank staff are going through a very difficult time at the moment and they are feeling the brunt of customers' anger at the banks," she told RTE.
Earlier this week, a man threw eggs at an Allied Irish Banks branch in the southern city of Cork.
(Reporting by Jonathan Saul; Editing by Carmel Crimmins)
