New figures highlighting the scale of physical and verbal threats to Fife Council staff have been branded “utterly shocking”.
A freedom of information request by the Scottish Conservatives showed 5,514 physical threats were made to council employees from 2016 to 2020.
Another 1,963 verbal threats were made to frontline staff in Fife over the same period.
Most of the abusive incidents were in schools, with 831 of the 1,136 threats reported last year concerning education employees.
Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Liz Smith said there was “no excuse” for the abuse.
“The staff who were subjected to these threats were only doing their job – serving the public and the local authority. They don’t deserve to get either physical or verbal threats,” she said.
“They work in various departments of Fife Council, ranging from adult service to property services, housing and children and families and criminal justice.
“Even if residents feel they have an issue they are not happy with, handing out physical and verbal threats to local authority staff is not on – there is no excuse for this.”
Last year, 694 instances of physical abuse were recorded in the education service, and 89 incidents were reported by staff in older people’s services.
In relation to verbal abuse, there were 137 cases in education and 34 in older people’s services.
Elsewhere, 18 roads and transportation staff members complained about verbal attacks.
Ms Smith added: “I find these figures very alarming and they underline the difficulties faced by some council employees when dealing with certain members of the general public.
“Appropriate action needs to be taken against the individuals concerned in handing out his kind of abuse.”
Sharon McKenzie, the council’s head of service, said all incidents are recorded and appropriate measures are taken.
She said: “We don’t tolerate any form of violence or abuse towards our staff.
“If an incident is of a serious nature then we will report it to Police Scotland.”
She said employees received conflict management training and are well briefed in dealing with challenging customers and deescalating techniques.
“Just like anyone else in their workplace, Fife Council staff should be able to carry out their work without the fear of verbal or physical attack and we don’t take such things lightly,” she said.
“All reported incidents are reviewed by services to ensure appropriate follow up action has been taken.”
