Balfour Beatty Living Places has partnered with Highways, Sussex Police and East Sussex County Council to highlight some of the practical changes that can help tackle the national crisis of roadworker abuse.

As part of the company's End Roadworker Abuse campaign, Balfour highlighted a range of actions it has taken from technological innovations to conflict management training for operatives.

Former managing director of Balfour Beatty Living Places, Steve Helliwell, stressed that there is a daily threat to roadworkers, with incidents ranging from verbal abuse to physical attacks and even threats with weapons.

Mr Helliwell revealed: ‘We have had people out there who have been threatened with knives and axes. The fear of what was initially a verbal abuse issue, but what has very much become a physical abuse issue, is really making people think about whether or not they want to stay in this industry.'

With the campaign ‘gaining momentum', Mr Helliwell stated that Balfour Beatty will ‘continue to fight the cause' until abuse of staff is removed from an industry that ‘we all enjoy working in'.

Protecting our people

On the technology side, Balfour Beatty has successfully introduced body-worn cameras for frontline operatives: ‘That's one of the absolute key elements,' Amanda Hart, an inspector for Sussex Police, told Highways, highlighting how powerful the footage can be in court.

'To watch the footage and to see what they're seeing, to hear them breathing [heavily], to be able to hear the thud if they're being hit, if somebody's come really close to them, they're right in their face [and] you can see the closeness. That footage is fantastic to put yourself in the position of the victim to actually see what it is that they were confronted with.'

On the conflict management side, Balfour has worked with Craig Smith, head of education and quality assurance at Minerva Elite Performance.

Mr Smith has met with frontline workers to give them the necessary training on how to successfully de-escalate confrontations and stay safe during negative interactions.

‘It's recognising that we are 50% responsible for every human interaction we have,' Mr Smith said.

‘So if we're dealing with the general public, we can't control how they behave, but we can control how we behave, how we speak to people. Can we worsen or lighten that relationship and that interaction?'

‘It's less around conflict and more about recognising the common interactions we have with humans and how we can make them more positive,' he said.