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Workplace Violence - What Can Employers Do to Prevent It?

10/19/2007 – Employment Relations Today: Questions-and Answers Column (Vol. 34, Issue 3) By Lynn Lieber, Esq.

A 10-page article published in Employment Relations Today
is excerpted below. Reprints are available online at Wiley InterScience.

Five faculty members were among the 32 people murdered April 16, 2007, on the campus of Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. The Virginia Tech massacre has renewed the focus on what steps employers can and should take to reduce the likelihood of violence in the workplace.

Workplace violence is not a rarity. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2005, nearly half of employers with over 1,000 employees reported an incident of workplace violence in the previous 12 months.1 In addition, a 2004 USA Today analysis indicated that an average of 25 people per week are injured as a result of workplace violence, and there is one fatality a week from work-place violence.2 More subtle forms of workplace violence occur in workplaces around the country at astonishing rates.

HOW IS WORKPLACE VIOLENCE DEFINED?

Violence in the workplace can come in all forms and severity levels. The term workplace violence is often overused; it is more accurate to use both the terms workplace violence and inappropriate workplace aggression to define the full range of aggressive actions (and inactions) that can occur in the workplace. Homicide is the most publicized form of workplace violence,but it is certainly not the most common type of behavior considered workplace violence. Nonlethal forms of violence occur much more frequently than fatal assaults. A broad range of con-duct is considered workplace violence, including the following:

  • Sabotage of a coworker or manager causing damage to his or her property,
  • Violent confrontations in the workplace,
  • Some forms of sexual harassment,
  • Threats of violence by an employee,
  • Assaults in the workplace,
  • Armed robbery of employees,
  • Suicide at the workplace,
  • Hostage incidents in the workplace, and
  • Homicide.

One of the first steps in preventing workplace violence is recognizing it. Workplace violence is not just a murderous shooting rampage. The familiar phrase “going postal” is actually a myth. The Postal Commission released a report that found that postal workers are no more likely to physically assault, sexually harass, or verbally abuse their coworkers than employees in the private sector. In fact, the commission’s study found that retail workers are eight times more likely than postal employees to be homicide victims at work, and taxi drivers are 150 times more likely than letter carriers to be homicide victims at work.

...Excerpted from the full Employment Relations Today article.
Additional questions answered by Lynn Lieber include:

  • WHAT IS INAPPROPRIATE WORKPLACE AGGRESSION?
  • WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF WORKPLACE VIOLENCE IDENTIFIED BY OSHA?
  • WHAT’S BEHIND WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?
  • WHAT BEHAVIORS OR CONDITIONS MAY PRECEDE WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?
  • WHAT TRIGGERING EVENTS CAN LEAD TO ACTS OF VIOLENCE?
  • WHY DOES WORKPLACE VIOLENCE CONTINUE TO OCCUR?
  • WHAT IS AN EMPLOYER’S RESPONSIBILITY TO PREVENT WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?
  • WHAT POLICIES SHOULD EMPLOYERS HAVE REGARDING VIOLENCE PREVENTION?
  • WHAT STEPS CAN EMPLOYERS TAKE TO PREVENT WORKPLACE VIOLENCE?

...Lynn Lieber's final answer and article summation:

WHAT PLANS SHOULD EMPLOYERS HAVE IN PLACE NOW?

Employers should have a comprehensive plan for maintaining a safe work environment. Many employers have developed such a plan as part of their OSHA-related Injury and Illness Prevention Program. In order to develop an appropriate plan to address violence in the workplace, an employer should identify its particular risk factors. Employers should examine the organization’s physical workplace to identify weaknesses in security. Employers should question their employees about possible sources of violence by conducting an employee survey into areas such as whether there is a particularly troublesome employee, a poorly lit parking lot,or a management style that breeds feelings of negativity or unfairness.

A critical element to an employer’s safe workplace plan is to provide assistance to troubled employees. Stress, substance abuse, and other mental problems are all contributing factors to incidents of employee violence. Providing employees with ways to deal with these problems may prevent them from deteriorating to the point that the employee explodes. Employers should consider offering a free, confidential counseling under an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to employees. Other possibilities include offering a conflict resolution program for disputes, peer support groups, or referrals to other mental health services.

It is important for employers to remember that any action taken that singles out an employee because the individual is perceived to be, or is,suffering from a mental illness could violate the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as corollary state disability laws. However, it is permissible for employers to treat individual employees differently if that decision is based on factors other than perceived mental illness, such as ownership of weapons, discussion of acts of violence, criminal history, or a past history of verbal or physical aggression. Documentation of such incidents is vital to demonstrating that disciplinary or other action taken is job-related and not based on mental disability.

WHERE SHOULD EMPLOYERS START PLANNING?

Irrespective of how effective a prevention plan maybe, however, there are no guarantees against an incident of workplace violence. Accordingly, a comprehensive workplace safety plan must include crisis procedures in the event of an incident of workplace violence. The development of crisis procedures should reflect the unique conditions faced by the employer. In developing these procedures,an employer should consult, through its HR department, security consultants, trauma experts,local law enforcement, and legal counsel.

Every plan should include what to do in the first 24 hours of the crisis, the next 72 hours, and the first week following the incident. Employers should:

  • Develop a chain of command to deal with an incident of workplace violence,starting with immediate supervisors and managers and then shifting to a crisis-management team;
  • Establish emergency notification procedures, including notification of internal security; local medical, fire, and police; the EAP; and victims’ families;
  • Contact a trauma consultant, occupational physician, security consultant, and/or legal counsel;
  • Implement procedures to determine and reestablish the safety of the workplace;
  • Establish an internal investigation team who will work with local authorities to gather critical information regarding the perpetrator, victims,witnesses, and photographs/security videotapes;
  • Set up a public relations team to deal with the media; and
  • Provide counseling to employees and their immediate families.

By taking simple steps of training employees and supervisors in how to identify and report inappropriate workplace aggression, having a clear and consistently enforced zero-tolerance policy on workplace violence, and preparing a detailed crisis-management plan, employers can prevent acts of workplace violence from occurring, or respond swiftly and appropriately if such an act should occur.

NOTES:
1.Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2006, October 27).
Survey of Workplace Violence Prevention, 2005.
2. Armour, S. (2004, July 16). Stopping a killer—Death in the workplace. USA Today.

Excerpted from the 10-page article published in Employment Relations Today.
Reprints of the full article are available at Wiley InterScience.

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