Almost 2,900 Angus Council employees have been the victims of assault during work over the last five years, The Courier can reveal.
More than 1,300 people were physically assaulted, with another 700 workers assaulted to their injury.
More than 700 threats or bouts of verbal abuse were directed towards staff.
The bulk of recorded incidents were against primary and secondary school teachers and assistants.
Figures obtained by The Courier for the period from January 1 2012 to date reveal 2,867 staff were subject to attacks and 2,705 of these were against employees in the People Directorate.
There were 670 assaults over the course of the last year alone.
Of the attacks in Angus, 1,424 occurred in the county’s 53 primary schools and 579 in its eight secondaries.
GMB Scotland Senior Organiser Drew Duffy said assaults on local authority workers were increasing nationally and called for a change in legislation to give more protection to workers.
He said: “These attacks are part of an increasing incidence of assault and violence against public sector workers across the whole of Scotland.
“GMB Scotland has consistently called for legislation protecting emergency workers to be extended to all public servants but unless we are funding our public services in a sustainable manner then we will always be swimming against the tide.
“The Finance Minister is planning a further £327 million worth of cuts to local government funding in the next year which will result in more cuts to local jobs, services and communities – there no doubt this problem is tied to the budget squeeze.
“Attacks against our public sector workers are another example of Scotland’s austerity shame and the Finance Secretary Derek Mackay needs to take these findings into consideration before he signs-off his budget early next year.”
The figures show there were 132 attacks at children’s residential and 123 in learning disabilities.
In the Communities Directorate, 133 staff were the subject of attacks including 32 against housing employees and 40 waste technicians.
The Resources Directorate – comprising finance, HQ and support functions – saw the lowest number of attacks, 29.
A council spokesman said: “No matter where they occur, no matter the circumstances and irrespective of whether they be verbal or physical – assaults on our staff are never acceptable.
“Our staff carry out valuable roles within our community and are entitled to do so without threat or fear of attack and abuse.
“We are committed to preventing violence and aggression in the workplace and encourage our staff to record and report such behaviour. Where incidents do happen, we will use all appropriate measures to ensure the person responsible is held to account and the staff member affected receives appropriate support.”
Scott Donohoe, chairman of the health and safety committee of Unison, welcomed recent improvements in data recording but described the attacks as “unacceptable”.
“There is no doubt the recording continues to improve, however the problem is clearly growing, rather than decreasing,” he said.
“Public service workers have a right to carry out their duties free from fear of attack.”
