SA-first campaign asks community to reflect on their behaviour towards City of West Torrens employees

A new campaign asking customers to reflect on their behaviour towards Council workers has been launched today by the City of West Torrens.

The campaign follows a significant increase in incidents of aggressive, threatening and violent behaviour directed towards Council staff by some members of the community.

This behaviour includes intimidation, online stalking, verbal abuse, verbal and physical threats, and even physical assault.

The ‘It Reflects ON YOU' campaign asks the community to pause and reflect on how they interact with Council workers and makes it clear that harmful behaviour won’t be tolerated.

The campaign will be rolled out in coming weeks via social and digital media, public spaces within Council buildings, advertising in the community and direct communications to ratepayers and customer of the City of West Torrens.

City of West Torrens Mayor, Michael Coxon, said its Council staff have the right to work in a safe environment without feeling threatened or fearful.

“We’ve seen an increase in aggressive, threatening and violent behaviour targeted at Council employees by customers, residents, ratepayers and other members of the public, which is a clear risk to their health and safety. Without a safe work environment, we are unable to properly serve the community,” said Mayor Coxon.

“It’s clearly confronting when this happens so we’re asking that people pause and reflect before interacting with our staff. Our message is a simple one; to treat us as you would like to be treated.

“We understand people can get frustrated at times, but there is absolutely no excuse for channelling that negativity towards someone who is doing their job and trying to assist.

“This isn’t just face-to-face behaviours – threatening and aggressive comments on our social media platforms, for example, are a significant issue that staff have to confront every day and dealing with these on a constant basis takes a toll on mental health and wellbeing.

“We recognise that respectful behaviour needs to be reciprocal and as such we've revised our Customer Service Charter which outlines what our customers can expect from us and in turn the behavioural expectations of our customers. 

“This is about making a joint commitment between Council and our community to aspire for a mutually respectful relationship.”

Mayor Coxon said a recent Council survey found 58 per cent of employees had experienced some form of aggressive, threatening or violent behaviour in their roles, but only 27 per cent – or less than half – had reported the poor behaviour to a supervisor or manager.

“Council recognises that we need to do more to assure our own employees that we will act on aggressive, threatening or violent behaviour and support them in any way we can, and that’s it’s vital they let us know when something like this happens.  This includes providing more training and support to help them manage confrontation and challenging behaviours.”

Minister for Local Government, Joe Szakacs MP, said no one should feel unsafe at work, and it’s completely unacceptable for anyone to be attacked, or on the end of aggressive and threatening behaviour while trying to do their job.

“I’m shocked and appalled that three in five council employees say they’ve been on the receiving end of these antisocial behaviours. It’s not on, it’s not good enough, and we all need to do better to call these behaviours out," said Minister Szakacs.

“We all have a right to feel safe and be safe in our workplace. I welcome this campaign and thank the City of West Torrens for its leadership.”

For more information visit https://www.westtorrens.sa.gov.au/Council/It-reflects-on-you

A new campaign asking customers to reflect on their behaviour towards Council workers has been launched today by the City of West Torrens.

The campaign follows a significant increase in incidents of aggressive, threatening and violent behaviour directed towards Council staff by some members of the community.

This behaviour includes intimidation, online stalking, verbal abuse, verbal and physical threats, and even physical assault.

The ‘It Reflects ON YOU' campaign asks the community to pause and reflect on how they interact with Council workers and makes it clear that harmful behaviour won’t be tolerated.

The campaign will be rolled out in coming weeks via social and digital media, public spaces within Council buildings, advertising in the community and direct communications to ratepayers and customer of the City of West Torrens.

City of West Torrens Mayor, Michael Coxon, said its Council staff have the right to work in a safe environment without feeling threatened or fearful.

“We’ve seen an increase in aggressive, threatening and violent behaviour targeted at Council employees by customers, residents, ratepayers and other members of the public, which is a clear risk to their health and safety. Without a safe work environment, we are unable to properly serve the community,” said Mayor Coxon.

“It’s clearly confronting when this happens so we’re asking that people pause and reflect before interacting with our staff. Our message is a simple one; to treat us as you would like to be treated.

“We understand people can get frustrated at times, but there is absolutely no excuse for channelling that negativity towards someone who is doing their job and trying to assist.

“This isn’t just face-to-face behaviours – threatening and aggressive comments on our social media platforms, for example, are a significant issue that staff have to confront every day and dealing with these on a constant basis takes a toll on mental health and wellbeing.

“We recognise that respectful behaviour needs to be reciprocal and as such we've revised our Customer Service Charter which outlines what our customers can expect from us and in turn the behavioural expectations of our customers. 

“This is about making a joint commitment between Council and our community to aspire for a mutually respectful relationship.”

Mayor Coxon said a recent Council survey found 58 per cent of employees had experienced some form of aggressive, threatening or violent behaviour in their roles, but only 27 per cent – or less than half – had reported the poor behaviour to a supervisor or manager.

“Council recognises that we need to do more to assure our own employees that we will act on aggressive, threatening or violent behaviour and support them in any way we can, and that’s it’s vital they let us know when something like this happens.  This includes providing more training and support to help them manage confrontation and challenging behaviours.”

Minister for Local Government, Joe Szakacs MP, said no one should feel unsafe at work, and it’s completely unacceptable for anyone to be attacked, or on the end of aggressive and threatening behaviour while trying to do their job.

“I’m shocked and appalled that three in five council employees say they’ve been on the receiving end of these antisocial behaviours. It’s not on, it’s not good enough, and we all need to do better to call these behaviours out," said Minister Szakacs.

“We all have a right to feel safe and be safe in our workplace. I welcome this campaign and thank the City of West Torrens for its leadership.”

For more information visit https://www.westtorrens.sa.gov.au/Council/It-reflects-on-you