'Tis the season to be kind

Chief Operating Officer Paul Jordon said patience, tolerance and goodwill were the best gifts in tough times.

“Community spirit gives our people such a lift when they’re out rebuilding the electricity network after cyclones, floods, bushfires, and storms.

“Sadly, a small but vocal minority think it’s okay to lash out at our people who are just doing their job, including in life-threatening emergency situations.

“While we understand it is frustrating to have your celebrations disrupted by unplanned power outages, there is no excuse for physical or verbal abuse and we will not stand for it,” Mr Jordon said.

Over a year, Ergon and Energex employees reported 111 cases of verbal or physical abuse from customers, including 57 in south-east Queensland and 54 in regional Queensland.

“Unfortunately, people working on the frontline of customer service are a target and these incidents can have a lasting impact on their mental health and wellbeing.

“Our teams answering your calls, our meter readers going door-to-door, and our crews fixing the network are there to help you. We are appealing to Queenslanders to treat people who are just doing their job as they would like to be treated, not just at Christmas but throughout the year,” Mr Jordon said.

As Queenslanders prepare for festive season celebrations, Ergon and Energex have announced a moratorium on planned outages from Tuesday 24 December to Thursday 2 January.

“We will be working to keep the Christmas lights, aircons, fridges and ovens on at a time of year when celebrations are in full swing, so we will be putting a hold on any planned maintenance that would have required a power outage.

“We will still have crews on standby 24/7 to respond to any emergency outages, which are more likely over storm season,” Mr Jordon said.

Last December hundreds of crew members were involved in the effort to rebuild the electricity network and restore power to tens of thousands of properties after Cyclone Jasper, Far North Queensland floods, and severe storms in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast.

“We are hoping all is calm and all is bright this year, but we will always be ready to support our communities whenever they need us,” Mr Jordon said.