Ever Been Sued?

Sep 1, 2006 12:00 PM, By Michael Fickes

As every security director well knows, lawsuits — filed by people who have suffered injuries that a security director (acting for his or her company) should have prevented — can strip a business of assets, wither its reputation and even destroy its ability to continue as a business.

“Security directors are — or should be — good at vulnerability assessments,” says Craig McQuate of the North Andover, Mass.-based McQuate Group, a security consulting firm. “They can do the same thing with liabilities. Make a liability assessment.”

McQuate recommends developing a list of liability issues that could be missed during a conventional vulnerability assessment. “Prioritize the list so you don't go crazy,” he adds. “Then think about the cost of fixing each one. Finally, take up these issues with senior executives, risk management and corporate counsel. They will decide which risks they are willing to accept and which they want to fix.”

But doesn't a vulnerability assessment catch liabilities? A company with offices in an area of a city where muggings have been carried out may need to arrange escorts for people walking to and from their cars after hours. Once inside the office, an access control system should not open the doors to unauthorized people.

Yes, vulnerability assessments catch many potential liabilities, concedes McQuate, who goes on to note that a typical vulnerability assessment will not catch all liability risks, if only because things change. An example is a once-happily-married employee whose relationship has unraveled and whose spouse threatens the employee with violence.

Security directors must have plans to deal with threats leveled against employees, whether by an angry spouse, a jilted significant other, another employee or anyone else.

When an employee faces a threat of violence at work, one of several things might happen:

• First, the employee may fear that telling someone could enrage the antagonist, who might then carry out the threat, so he or she remains silent.

• Second, the employee might go to human resources (HR), where the issue is often treated as an HR issue and not a security issue.

• Third, the employee might go to the security department, which often treats it as a threat and not an HR issue.

• Fourth, the employee might tell a friend or a manager but extract a promise not to tell anyone else.

Any of these situations could end with a violent workplace incident and a subsequent lawsuit.

How did the spouse get past the access control system and security officer? Well, the officer knew the spouse who said he wanted to surprise his wife. The officer had no inkling of the potential for violence.

If one employee threatens another and carries out the threat, why didn't the attacker's manager notice how angry the attacker was? Surely someone in the office, a friend, manager or observant HR manager or security officer noticed something.

These situations are loaded with liability risks — but addressing them need not be costly.

“In my past work as a security director, I've always worked with HR to develop a violence-free workplace policy,” McQuate says. “It outlines all the acceptable and unacceptable employee behaviors.”

Employee policy manuals might also urge threatened employees to ask for help from a friend, manager, HR person or security officer. The policy might also tell friends and managers how to deal with such revelations by passing the information on to HR or security. An occasional memo from the security director or HR manager could remind everyone of the policy.

McQuate emphasizes that liability risks often call for a team response. When an employee is threatened, the team would include representatives from security, HR and management. Both security and HR might discuss the problem with the threatened employee's manager. If the individual making the threat happens also to be an employee, then his or her manager might be brought into the team. The managers would watch for signs of trouble. HR might transfer the threatened employee.

“Security would investigate quietly — and I do mean quietly,” McQuate says. “You are dealing with reputations. My strategy is to find out everything I can about the person accused of issuing a threat before talking with him or her. In cases where a threat had actually been made, I've often found that the individual had a history of violence or of making violent threats.”

What other situations create liability risks for companies? “I always viewed any unauthorized access of someone's personnel records as the beginning of a stalking problem,” McQuate says. “We would proceed with that in mind.”

Another potential liability problem might arise from the people brought onto company premises by outsourcing firms: cleaning crews, landscapers, construction contractors, delivery people and others.

What if a cleaning vendor hires an individual wanted for questioning in a rape? What if the vendor brings that person into an office building and that person rapes an employee who is working late? Isn't that too great a risk to take with an employee's safety and a company's liability?

Has a company vendor conducted proper background checks to make sure that illegal immigrants or criminals are not coming into a client's building?

McQuate points to another situation. What if a security officer on patrol notices an unsafe condition: a worn carpet seam that might trip someone; an unstable inventory rack in the warehouse; or a broken lock on the door to HR? If the officer is doing a good job, he or she will record the problem.

Now that maintenance has been notified, however, they have to take care of the problem.

And it's up to the security department to avoid lawsuits with a liability assessment.

Want to use this article? Click here for options!
© 2008 Penton Media Inc.

This month in Access Control

• Opening Up About Door Closers
• An Enterprise Approach
• The Framework For Open Systems
• On A Higher Plane
• More from April's issue