Today's report from Unison paints a picture of housing officers at risk of attack from violent clients, classroom assistants dealing with pupils who lash out, and care workers fielding violence from patients who may have dementia or mental health problems.

Unison's latest violence at work survey has recorded more than 37,000 incidents, up 3,400 since last year and almost double the 20,000 reported incidents when the survey was first done in 2006. Education, nursing and social care are all areas which experience comparatively high levels of violence.

On first reading, the upsurge in violence appears very dramatic but, as Unison makes clear, some of the increase is accounted for by better reporting of violent incidents over the years. There are also differences between how public sector employers record violent incidents - Scottish Borders Council, for instance, has recorded by far the highest incidence of assaults of any health board, at 4,370, but that is due to its having a system of "frequency reporting" in which multiple incidents of assault on the same member of staff are recorded in the same period; other health boards do not have the same recording arrangements.

Even so, an increase in incidents is evident, for instance among council workers. Unison suggests that one of the underlying causes could be that both staff and clients are under pressure as a result of staffing cuts in key public services. There is no doubt at all that council services have been at the sharp end of austerity policies, not helped by the council tax freeze that is now in its seventh year. Stressed clients are surely more likely to lash out.

No violent behaviour towards workers doing their jobs is ever acceptable; no workers should have to live with the threat of violence. Unison has noted its concern that some employers and even staff may take the view that assaults by certain groups have to be tolerated, for instance those by "looked after people" such as those with dementia or learning difficulties. While there are obviously extenuating circumstances when it comes to the culpability of these individuals for their actions, their attacks can still have a serious impact. Employers must ensure that they are doing the utmost possible to prevent these incidents occurring.

Further improvements are required to the way violence is recorded since, without clear information, there will be limits to what employers can do to combat the problem. Unison fears that many incidents still go unreported. Greater standardisation of reporting techniques between public sector organisations is also necessary if meaningful comparisons are to be made between different organisations and from one year to the next.

Violence against public sector workers has been going up during a period when violent crime in Scotland has been going down. Even if this is partly due to better reporting, there is clearly a stubborn problem that is not diminishing as it should. This report should make employers look again at their policies for dealing with assault and do more to tackle the problem.