A real estate office manager has resorted to utilising body cameras on her staff due to growing frustrations with Australia’s cost of living crisis.
According to ABC News, Queensland property office manager and sales agent Adele Crocker has implemented the use of body cams after one of her staff members was locked inside a house by a tenant during an inspection last year.
“Since then we’ve seen several altercations with tenants,” she said, per the publication.
“For us, not to be able to help [people to find a place to live] is obviously very heartbreaking.
“But it’s a true testament as to what’s actually going on with the housing crisis.
“It is making people frustrated and angry … It does take its toll on the staff and it’s awful to think that we’re being abused for just doing our job.”
Crocker also claimed that incidents between tenants and her agents had decreased ever since the staff started using body cams.
“We decided it was time to start wearing cameras, not only for our safety, but for the tenants as well, to make sure that they can see that everything is above board when we do our inspections,” she said.
Sam Galer, the Residential Tenancies Authority principal project officer, told ABC News that real estate agents wearing body cams in Queensland has been heard of, but it wasn’t common.
Galer, as per the publication, said that legislation did not prohibit the use of these body cams but recommended that real estate agents pursue written consent and provide notice to potential clients.
In June of this year, the New South Wales Government announced tougher penalities for people who abused retail workers.
Throwing items, assaulting, harassing, stalking or intimidating a retail worker during their job could result in a maximum of four years imprisonment for the perpetrator — even if it doesn’t cause bodily harm.
If the retail worker was hurt during the ordeal, the punishment can be bumped up to six years of prison.
The announcement also revealed that a bogus 85 per cent of retail workers reported abuse on the job.
“Every worker is entitled not only to feel safe at work but to be safe,” Minister for Industrial Relations and Work Health and Safety Sophie Cotsis said.
Speaking to ABC News, the University of Queensland senior lecturer and specialist in human behaviour and decision-making Micheal Noetel said “it was not surprising that tensions were rising” during Aussie cozzie livs.
“Whenever we feel a sense of threat or insecurity, often we’ll do a whole lot of different things to try to manage that … like getting angry or aggressive,” he said.
As much as it is frustrating to be knocked back during cozzie livs and the housing crisis, it doesn’t warrant the public to literally stalk, harass and mess with real estate agents.
Hopefully, laws are introduced to protect those who are on the job during this incredibly stressful time.
