ES task force to deal with aggressive behaviour

Environment Southland has formed an internal task force to address aggressive behaviour towards staff from the public.

They’re one of the most frequently reported health and safety incidents, according to Environment Southland’s health, safety and risk manager Paul le Roux, who will table two reports at a Risk and Assurance Committee meeting today.

The trend was being experienced across the local government sector, one of his reports said. Incidents were not happening more frequently, but the intensity and tone of customer behaviour had changed for the worse.

In response to several incidents in 2023, which were not identified in the reports, the council established a “learning team” to investigate the issue, and a report was drafted with recommendations.

Several operational improvements were identified, and an action plan developed.

A recommendation that an internal task force drive the improvements was approved by the executive team, and a general manager had been nominated to sponsor the task force and to report progress to the executive team.

The task force was made up of staff across the organisation who regularly dealt with the council’s customers.

Environment Southland offered CERT Training (Situational Safety & Tactical Communication) to its frontline staff and further training would be given to compliance officers and reception staff, the report said.

Environment Southland had an Unreasonable Customer Policy that set a minimum acceptable standard of behaviour staff would tolerate.

The policy also stipulated actions to be taken if customers behaved unreasonably.

The use of trespass notices and legislation such as the Telecommunication Act 2001 were also being used to manage unreasonable behaviour, particularly for harassment.