Employers can do more to address workplace violence

Dec 19, 2006 3:30 PM

More than 70 percent of U.S. workplaces do not have a formal program or policy addressing workplace violence, according to a survey conducted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). More than 7.4 million U.S. employers, employing more than 128 million workers, participated in the survey -- making it one of the largest and most comprehensive workplace violence surveys to date.

The survey also revealed that nearly 80 percent of companies provide no training for workplace violence prevention.

How is it possible that so many employers still don't have a program or offer training to prevent workplace violence?

"Maybe it's because the vast majority of them are small employers that think violence can't touch them so they don't need a policy," an employment law attorney from Womble Carlyle Sandridge & Rice PLLC writes in The North Carolina Employment Law Letter. The law firm is based in Charlotte, N.C. "The problem with that thinking is that small employers are held no less responsible for protecting their employees and patrons from violence than large corporations."

The survey reveals that nearly 14 percent of large employers (those with more than 1,000 employees) don't have a formal workplace violence-prevention policy and more than 30 percent offer no training on the subject.

Finally, the survey found that 5.4 percent of all employers suffered an incident of workplace violence in the previous year. Visit www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osnr0026.pdf to read more about the survey.

"Clearly, more needs to be done to educate employers about the need to be proactive in addressing and preventing violence in the workplace," says the writer, who offers the following workplace violence prevention tips:

* adopt comprehensive policies and procedures that include: careful hiring procedures (including reference checks and, depending on the specific company, other forms of background checks); prohibition of violence and threats of violence in the workplace; an attempt to prevent such violence (for example, by using adequate security measures); employee instruction on how to respond to violence or threats of violence; and dealing with problem employees before they become violent.

A "zero tolerance" workplace violence policy should be adopted.

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