Violence continues against recycling centre staff

Recycling centres in Hertfordshire have continued to experience violent incidents against staff, the county council said, as work is carried out to find out why attacks are happening.

The authority said there remained "an unacceptable level of abuse and aggression directed towards site staff", despite incidents falling from 50 to 30 in the past year.

All sites have been given body-worn video cameras and staff have had customer service training to try and stop the violence.

A report by the recycling centres' team leader Andrew McGinn said work was under way with the council's behavioural change unit "to identify the cause of incidents of abuse and implement strategies to address them".

"Abusive or threatening behaviour or harassment towards our employees is unacceptable and HCC [Hertfordshire County Council] will always seek an investigation by the police wherever feasible and will press for the strongest penalties against offenders," it said.

The report praised the introduction of body cameras for staff, with them proving a deterrent for aggressive behaviour and being used "successfully in challenging complaints from site users".

It said the county's road workers had also shared best practice when dealing with abusive behaviour.

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