A Florida PSC rule offers better protection for utility workers
Peoples Gas employees have an extra tool in their kit to ward off customer threats, thanks to a proposal approved by the Florida Public Service Commission that allows the utility to disconnect or refuse service to customers who threaten their utility workers.
The approval allows TECO Peoples Gas and Tampa Electric, part of Emera Inc., to add threats to employees to the list of circumstances in which service can be disconnected or refused. Other circumstances include failure to pay bills and tampering with meters.
“Our employees get threatened with physical harm or death an average of once a week,” Cherie Jacobs, spokesperson for TECO Peoples Gas and Tampa Electric, told American Gas. “This creates an additional tool to keep our employees safe.”
The threats often come when utility workers arrive to shut off service for lack of payment. If an employee is threatened by a customer on site, current protocol is to leave, Jacobs said. The utility workers then file a report and call law enforcement to escort them back to the property to complete the order.
Prior to the new proposal, customers who threatened utility workers could have their service restored after payment was made. Now, the utility has the right to no longer serve a customer who has made threats, Jacobs said.
She stressed that any decision to terminate service is thoroughly reviewed and not taken lightly.
Just having the option to terminate service and publicizing the ability to do so could serve as a deterrent. “If this helps some situations to cool off without having to enforce it, all the better,” Jacobs said.