Roadworker Abuse

from Essex County Council’s Perspective

Introduction

Many of our staff and supply chain partners work every day out on our networks providing a vital service to allow us as public road users to move around freely and safely. Yet we continue to see increasing numbers of threats both verbally and physically against those that work on our highways across the United Kingdom.

Suffering physical or psychological abuse when undertaking this work is totally unacceptable and we aim to do everything we can to protect our staff and supply chain partners.

Health and Safety is at the heart of everything we do. We are focused on providing a safe and healthy environment for our employees while developing a culture where everyone is accountable for working safely, ultimately managing and controlling risks.

We utilise the following mitigation measures daily on our sites:

Temporary Traffic Management

Many instances of abuse or threats are received from our operatives and supply chain while installing traffic management. So, the understanding of how this is carried out correctly is a good way of reducing risks to our employees, having robust systems in place to ensure our traffic management is planned, designed, managed, and installed correctly can reduce instances of abuse.

Traffic management is a type of temporary works to allow the creation of a safe work area for our staff by temporarily removing the travelling public in safe manner. Removing the public from the situation can be where conflict arises, as it is a change from “the norm” and can lead to misunderstanding and frustration.

Thinking about the two sentences below for all road users can be a good simple guide to minimise conflict:

• “Will someone using the road or footway from any direction understand exactly what is happening and what is expected of them?

• “Have I made the site safe to work in and for the general public?”

Conflict Management

The type of work carried out will put our workers in situations where there is interaction with the public. There are times where workers may be alone, whether staffing closure points, setting up Traffic Management or carrying out surveys and inspections. It’s during these times where workers are most likely to be the victim of such an event. Unfortunately, there will be situations where members of the public are upset, angry and want to vent their frustrations.

We continue to roll out Conflict Resolution training for both operational and office-based staff so that they are equipped to deal with members of the public should the situation arise.

Body Worn Cameras

Body Worn Cameras are used at all road closures and areas of known high risk. If works are not being carried out at such locations, body cameras are utilised for any other works.

Body Worn Cameras are there for the safety of our teams and can act as a deterrent to instances of aggression or verbal and physical abuse towards our staff or supply chain partners. They can also provide crucial evidence to support Police investigations with the aim of leading to prosecutions, so it is key that they are worn and used appropriately.

CCTV cameras are also used on projects across our business aligned with associated signage to ensure members of the public are aware of their presence.

Police Notification Cards

We have developed Police Notification Cards to assist our staff and Supply Chain Partners if they face situations of serious abuse or assault. We also have developed a standard Police Reporting Form to ensure the police get the exact information they need to follow through with prosecutions. It’s important to build relationships locally with the Police so that they can assist should such instances occur.

How to Report Abuse

Reporting incidents of abuse is important, as it allows for the organisation to record all incidents, along with being able to gather information around what has happened. Within Essex Highways, there is the REPORT IT! tool, which can be found on all computer desktops and on the app on smartphones.

Our aim is to gather as much information as possible for these incidents so that we can then identify high risk areas to help us to plan our works better in the future and to ensure we have sufficient information to pass onto the Police so they can take the matter further

Paul Crick Director for Highways & Transportation Essex County Council April

2023