Public are the biggest threat to council staff
Members of the public continue to be the biggest threat to Palmerston North City Council staff’s health and safety.
In the three months to the end of December, frontline staff reported 39 cases of having to deal with threatening behaviour, up from 37 in the previous quarter.
In total, frontline working staff reported 48 incidents and five near misses.
Customer service staff recorded 31 incidents of verbal abuse, and three of being in physical danger.
Another five verbal abuse incidents and one physical danger incident were reported by the infrastructure team.
Dealing with the public accounted for a quarter of all incidents in the health and safety reports presented to the council’s risk and assurance committee.
The council is no longer releasing anonymous commentary or details about individual incidents, citing as reasons that sharing the information could put someone’s health and safety at risk, and could discourage staff from continuing to supply reports.
Health and safety manager Selwyn Ponga-Davis told the committee there was a continuing trend of staff experiencing unacceptable behaviour when working with the public.
Duress alarm and radio communications trials and training was carried out with staff.
He said any staff member who felt unsafe was expected to call police, who had been supportive in responding.
Council risk and resilience manager Jason McDowell said a protocol had been developed allowing frontline staff to verbally trespass people if they made them feel unsafe.
If those people returned, staff were encouraged to call police.
Cr Lorna Johnson asked what protocols were in place to safeguard staff who might be representing the council on contentious issues that could attract abuse from members of the public.
Ponga-Davis said all staff were encouraged to speak up and stand up, to call police, and keep council management informed and ask for any other support they needed.
He said if staff were aware another staff member was in any kind of trouble,
Health and safety manager Selwyn Ponga-Davis told the committee there was a continuing trend of staff experiencing unacceptable behaviour when working with the public.
they were expected to stand up for their colleagues.