FAQs

Sutherland Shire Council is making use of resources provided by the NSW Ombudsman to develop an Unreasonable Customer Conduct Policy. The policy aims to help us support wellbeing and safety within a secure environment for staff and councillors. It provides scope to allocate customer service resources fairly for all Council customers.

This type of policy  is increasingly commonplace in government agencies, organisations and not-for-profit organisations across Australia. It is based on the NSW Ombudsman's Managing Unreasonable Complainant Conduct model policy and procedure.

Unreasonable customer conduct is explained in detail in the policy document and we encourage readers wanting to know more to read the full document.

Most of Council's customers act reasonably and responsibly, even if they are experiencing distress, frustration or anger about a particular matter. Council has many thousands of positive and productive customer service interactions in person, by email and phone every year.

There are however a very small number who behave in ways that is inappropriate, or unacceptable; or compromises the health, safety and security of Council staff, other customers or the customer him or herself. 

Some customers waste staff time and Council resources without good reason and this has an unfair impact on our ability to provide services to everyone who needs assistance.

Examples of unreasonable conduct may be:

• being verbally or physically abusive or aggressive towards Councillors and staff
• threatening harm and violence including the threat to use a weapon
• stalking staff in person or online
• inundating Council's offices with unnecessary and excessive phone calls and emails
• making inappropriate demands on Council's time and resources
• refusing to accept Council's decisions and recommendations in relation to their matter
• persistently demanding a response to a question, even after the answer has been provided
• repeatedly sending irrelevant and disorganised information without clearly defining any issues
• repeatedly presenting arguments that are not supported by evidence
• persistently demanding a response to a question, even after the answer has been repeatedly provided
• repeatedly demanding services that Council cannot provide despite this being explained.

When customers behave in these ways, we will consider their conduct to be 'unreasonable' in one or more of five categories which are explained in detail in the policy.

• Unreasonable persistence
• Unreasonable demands
• Unreasonable lack of cooperation
• Unreasonable arguments
• Unreasonable behaviours.

Council could issue a warning to an individual if this behaviour continues. We may restrict the number of requests we will respond to in a given period. 

For someone who is repeatedly aggressive or offensive to our staff, we might restrict access to staff and only acknowledge emails sent to ssc@ssc.nsw.gov.au 

No. The aim of the procedure is to help us manage unreasonable behaviour, not stop contact. If a person behaves in an unreasonable manner the procedure may be applied and certain restrictions may be imposed.