A southern council has reported an increase in health and safety events, including abuse and “challenging behaviour”.
Invercargill City Council released the information for a recent committee meeting, showing there had been an increase in events for 2024.
The total number of incidents reported that year was 391, almost double the 203 reported in 2023.
Psychosocial harm was deemed the highest risk category.
A large portion of incidents were detected through phone monitoring system Genesys, which was used by customer service.
In addition, regulatory roles such as animal control and parking have also experienced an increase in verbal abuse and threatening behaviour.
Council group manager community engagement and corporate services Trudie Hurst said psychosocial harm was defined as that which intended to cause psychological injury to a worker and negatively impact their mental well-being.
“Many of our teams work in community-facing positions where they may encounter challenging behaviour from individuals either in person, over the phone or in writing,” she said.
In relation to phone incidents, the council was using Genesys to conduct “sentiment analysis”, which it trialled last year.
The system recorded calls and transcribed them, with the trial identifying keywords which could signal aggression or abuse.
Although it was not able to pick up every incident reported by staff, Hurst said the system proved valuable for training and responding to aggressive behaviour.
A report for the recent meeting also noted year-on-year increases in staff utilising the council’s employee assistance programme.
The service had been used by 29% of workers, with contact and session numbers rising “significantly” from 2022 to 2024.
The average number of sessions per worker was two-and-a-half.
While there was an increase in the reporting of health and safety incidents, injuries and near misses, the total number of injuries had declined overall.
The council believed both a heightened awareness of the reporting process and a new user-friendly system could be factors in the increase.
Hurst also noted that, on the whole, there was only a small number of abusive interactions with members of the public.
LDR is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air
