A new study reveals some disturbing numbers about the violence long term care workers face on the job.

A poll conducted for the Canadian Union of Public Employees reveals 80 percent of long term care employees have first hand experience with physical assault in the workplace.

More than 1000 long term care workers in Ontario (85 percent of them female) took part in the survey, which also shows almost half of respondents experience physical violence such as pushing or hitting on a daily or weekly basis. More than 60 percent say they had faced sexual harassment at least once on the job, and just over 40 percent say they’d experienced sexual assault.

Interestingly, despite the high levels of workplace violence reported by those surveyed, the poll found more than half of respondents had never filed a formal report with their employer.

CUPE local president Sue Moore says she believes this is because workplace violence is often treated like part of the job, rather than a risk.