We are here to keep our customers safe and to provide the best service we can, but we’re also responsible for protecting our employees from abuse, hostility and violence.

Recently we have seen a sharp increase in incidents involving violence and aggression towards our employees, with 12 in the last six-months, which is up from 2 in the six-months prior to that.

This is not acceptable, and at Torus, we take a zero-tolerance approach to verbal or physical assault of any nature towards our employees and will act against customers who are abusive towards our employees or contractors and will take appropriate action to protect our people. This month alone we have been successful in obtaining two legal injunctions with powers of arrest against Torus tenants for threatening and aggressive behaviour towards Torus employees.

Torus Director of Housing, Paul Warburton, said:

“Torus is committed to protecting all our colleagues and abuse against any colleague or contractors will not be tolerated. Legal action is always the last resort, but if every other course of actions has failed, we will not hesitate to go down a legal route.”

The first two-year injunction was obtained against a male resident in Liverpool in relation to threats to employees and prevents him using or threatening to use abusive, threatening or foul language towards any Torus employee or contractor and includes an exclusion zone around the Torus offices in Liverpool.

The second one-year injunction was obtained after a tenant physically assaulted a Torus employee, the tenant is now not allowed (whether by himself or by instructing or encouraging or permitting any other person) from engaging in conduct causing or likely to cause harassment, alarm, distress, nuisance or annoyance including the use abusive, threatening or foul language and using or threatening to use violence towards any Torus employee or contractor and the employee involved. The injunction also bans the tenants from entering the Torus office and car park in St Helens.

Offensive behaviour can cause distress and worry. It can frighten employees and have a serious impact on their mental wellbeing, which can then impact on your service. Therefore, we do not expect our employee to feel they must deal with customers who show threatening, abusive, or violent behaviour.

Torus Service Lead for Safer Estates, Scott Cooke, added:

“Abuse is not part of our job, and no colleague wishes to feel frightened about going to work. These injunctions demonstrate our commitment to a zero-tolerance approach when it comes to our employees taking abuse and threats from our residents.”

Making a Complaint:

We will always acknowledge or investigate something a customer feels is wrong. However, that doesn’t mean our employees, contractors or others working on our behalf, will tolerate unacceptable behaviour from a customer, no matter how much the customer thinks it is justified.

The Housing Ombudsman Service requires housing associations and councils to have policies which help to manage customers who complain in an unacceptable way.

Our complaints policy explains how to complain, what the process is and what is, or isn’t, a complaint and our anti-social behaviour policy explains what we do to help a customer in need. However, these policies don’t explain what we do when it is a customer behaving unacceptably towards our employees.

Find out more about making a complaint and what to do if you are not happy with the outcome here.

Find out more about reporting ASB here.

What we might do:

If we, or our contractors, are faced with unacceptable behaviour from a customer, (whether that’s aggression, violence or threats of violence, or any form of discrimination or abuse), we might end the call, visit or appointment.

If we know a customer might behave in a certain way, we might make sure our employees do not visit them alone. These actions also work to protect the customer, particularly if that behaviour is made worse because of physical or mental conditions.

Every customer has a right to be heard, understood and respected, and we will make sure that happens in a fair and consistent way. We understand that distressing or frustrating circumstances can cause someone to act out of character, but that behaviour can become unacceptable if it continues or becomes so demanding that it affects our ability to provide our services to other customers.

What is unacceptable behaviour against Torus employee, and those working on our behalf?

These are the kind of behaviours we consider to be unreasonable or unacceptable:

• Unreasonable demands (such as asking for large amounts of information, for us to respond in a short time or for refusing to speak to a certain person or insisting on speaking with another person)
• Unreasonable persistence (refusing to accept our information, continuing to raise the same subject without any new evidence, adding to or changing the subject matter of the complaint
• Verbal abuse, aggression, violence (this is not just limited to actual physical or verbal abuse but can include derogatory remarks, rudeness, inflammatory allegations, and threats of violence)
• Excessive letters, calls, emails or contact via social media (this could include how often contact is made and the volume of correspondence received as well as the frequency and length of telephone calls)

This behaviour isn’t just from a customer, it also includes the family, friends or visitors of that customer when dealing with us or living in or visiting our homes. As our customer, you are responsible for their behaviour.

When customers act in this way, we will try to reach an arrangement which stops us taking more formal action. This is to allow the person time to change their behaviour. We may suggest mediation to try and improve the situation. If this fails, we may issue a warning before taking any formal steps. We will explain why the behaviour is unreasonable and what will happen next if it continues.

What action can Torus take?

We could:

• Provide a single point of contact.
• Limit contact to a single form, letter, or email, for example.
• Limit contact to certain times or a limited number of times.
• Not investigate further unless new evidence or information is provided.
• Limit how many issues we can investigate, if there are a number.

In certain cases, such as if there is physical violence, verbal abuse or harassment towards an employee, we will take further action, which may involve the police or other legal action. Unacceptable behaviour can also put the tenancy at risk, as it is a breach of the tenancy agreement, customers have signed.

Our priority will always be to protect our customers and employee. If the focus of a customer’s complaint is not about service but the employee, then these will also be investigated using our appropriate policies.

We expect our employees to offer you service with respect at all times. Please respect those that deliver our services to you.