More funding will be allocated to the Invercargill City Council’s human resource department to alleviate staffing pressures.

The Finance and Policy Committee agreed that an extra $265,000 should be spent on combating rise in ‘harm exposure,’ after a rise in physical and psychologist incidents at council over the past 12 months. Related: 240 Invercargill City Council Staff Set to Relocate

The council’s community engagement and corporate services manager Trudie Hurst said in her report, an increase in events indicated negative impacts on staff wellbeing.

From May to July this year, the council recorded 112 harm exposure incidents, up from 74 last year.

Mayor Nobby Clark said he felt the council was pretty light when it came to staffing in that area compared to other teams, with only eight people employed for a council of 350.

He said it was a pretty low resource, “and I can understand why they are stressed,” he said.

Anxiety, emotional distress and pressure and stress were among the top harm exposures over the past two years.

However he disagreed with the recommendation that the increase in funding come from debt or rates, and should be found internally.   That amendment was agreed by other councillors.

So far in the 2024 calendar year the council’s employee assistance provider has been used 52 times on a range of issues of which more than 33 per cent have related to work rather than personal-life matters.

Of the requested extra funding, Trudie also proposed in her report that $165,000 be spent on extra support from specialist contractors.

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