Rotorua's InfraCore staff are facing increasing abuse from the public. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith
Abuse faced by city workers in Rotorua has more than tripled with incidents including verbal and physical threats - and their boss believes the state of the economy could be partly behind the spike.
InfraCore is a Rotorua Lakes Council-controlled organisation and its work includes maintaining garden beds, janitorial services and maintenance on the wastewater and water supply networks.
Board member Brent Whibley raised the issue at a Rotorua Lakes Council meeting last week, saying health and safety concerns made recruiting harder because members of the public were abusing team members.
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After the meeting, InfraCore chief executive Emma Murray told Local Democracy Reporting the organisation had averaged five incidents a month relating to public aggression in the first five months of this year.
This compared to seven incidents reported in the whole of 2022, and nine in 2021.
Abuse and threats happened day and night and were directed at parks and open spaces, utilities, cleaning and gardening teams.
Incidents included verbal abuse and physical threats to assault staff or steal equipment, requiring a call to the police.
"Many of the incidents are very distressing for our workers," Murray said.
''I believe this is a nationwide increase, and while we can't be sure the driving force behind this, probably the instability in the current economic/political environment is a contributing factor.
"I'm sure other contractors working in the public would also be subject to the same treatment. It is very sad."
InfraCore chief executive Emma Murray at a May council meeting Photo: LDR / Laura Smith
Staff were trained in de-escalation skills and a communication plan for lone workers was put in place as a result.
The Bay of Plenty Local Authority Shared Services health and safety advisory group was addressing the issue at a regional level, she said. This service is owned by the region's councils.
She said all incidents were reported in its health and safety system and it also had an employee assistance programme for staff to speak to someone out-of-company and in a confidential setting if an incident was particularly distressing. Details are not provided to InfraCore.
"Given the work in the community, we are unfortunately unable to remove this risk to our people. This is why we have provided the wrap-around support."
Incidents are reviewed to provide best-practice support, she said, and incident reports were discussed at its health and safety subcommittee.
Her message to the public was: "Our people spend tireless hours in the community to make our space somewhere for all to enjoy. Please refrain from any form of abuse, as the people of InfraCore are just trying to complete their tasks."
Amalgamated Worker's Union Rotorua and Bay of Plenty organiser Toni Smith said it had not been hearing from its members about any abuse, but said any training such as learning de-escalation skills was great.
Council organisational enablement deputy chief executive Thomas Collé said everybody had the right to go about their work safely.
"In our view any attack, whether it's verbal abuse, threats or physical assault, is completely unacceptable and is taken very seriously."
Most people were courteous when dealing with council staff, "but unfortunately, abuse occurs fairly regularly, although not in large numbers".
Frontline workers such as library, customer centre, animal control staff and Safe City Guardians tended to be abused more.
Collé said it was always unsettling and could have long-term impacts if serious.
"We would ask people to remember that our staff, and CCO staff, are also members of the community and deserving of respect as they go about their daily work."
Regarding recruitment, he said the council aimed to be a good employer but like many other organisations, found it difficult to fill roles that were in high demand across public and private sectors.
During the council meeting, when councillor Don Paterson asked about poaching and Infracore's staff shortage, Murray said there had been a "huge push" in building resilience in the HR team and to get recruitment "up and running".
Finding the right people with the wages it could afford and within its drug and alcohol policy was also challenging, she said.
"Making sure we have the right people in place, and really just the reality of Rotorua, and the people here.
"It's tough, it's really tough."
Councillor Robert Lee asked her to clarify who the right person was.
Murray responded that a lot of the work Infracore did was invisible to the community - including staff getting up at 3am to sweep streets and clean toilets.
"That is care and love. That is what the people of InfraCore have."
It considered all applications for roles but some of these were incredibly difficult to fill, she said.
"They are not attractive, in terms of the work, and that means you have to find the people that truly care about this community."
The InfraCore building was also tired, she said, and made it more difficult to convey the culture of "care, love and quality".
Infracore chairman John McRae. Photo: LDR / Laura Smith
Chairman John McRae provided a financial update at the meeting and said it was forecasting an operating loss of $124,000 this financial year, for a net deficit of $420,000.
McRae "painted a picture" of why, and said it was the same across the country with inflationary pressures. Its budget was based on a 5 per cent rise in inflation, but this would actually be 7.4 percent.
"We were already on the back foot."
At the same time, unemployment was "too low" at 3.2 percent, which drove wage inflation to 5.8 percent. However, inflation in manufacturing wages sat at 12.1 percent.
"Obviously of great concern to us."
Competition had increased and as staff began "chasing that extra cent", the organisation peaked at 24 vacancies between November and March. It saved $1 million in staff costs.
Seventeen of these positions had now been filled.
Local Democracy Reporting is Public Interest Journalism funded through NZ On Air