Workplace Violence

Whether you are a small business owner or a company with hundreds of employees, the reality is simple.  Good employees are an asset to your company.  Some small business owners rely very much on a couple of employees in their business, and the daily tasks seem impossible to fulfill without those key employees. Monetary compensation, health insurance, and retirement accounts for those employees seem to be in accordance to the tasks they perform.  But, have you thought whether the security in your business is appropriate? Have you checked to see whether help is there if needed? Ensuring employees safety in the workplace should be a top priority for you, and your business.  To read more about this topic follow the links below.

Workplace Violence: The Tragedies Continue

How to protect yourself during an active shooter incident.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 7% of all workplace fatalities are the result of intentional homicide. While active shooter scenarios in the workplace are relatively rare, they result in fatal injuries more often than fires and explosions, getting caught in equipment or machinery, and exposure to hazardous substances combined. The latest statistics for full year 2014 indicate there were 403 workplace violence homicides, with 307 or 76% classified as intentional shootings. Nearly 17% of the victims were women, 83% were men. It’s true that armed robberies make up about half of all work-related homicides, but attacks by coworkers, students and relatives make up the rest.

Some incidents of extreme workplace violence are spectacular and receive wide media attention. The recent mass killings at a San Bernardino, California, office party and the August 2015 on-camera shooting of two journalists by one of their former colleagues come to mind. And it happened again just last week. Three people were killed and another 14 injured on February 25 in Hesston, Kansas. The gunman was a disgruntled employee.
Although it is hard to believe and probably the result of how incidents are categorized, the event widely described as one of the first workplace violence shootings in the United States occurred in 1989, when a disgruntled worker brought an AK-47 into the Standard-Gravure printing plant in Louisville, Kentucky and killed eight employees, then himself.

A Look at Workplace Violence in the United States

Fifteen people at a Kansas factory were shot, three of them killed, by a co-worker whom police say had also shot two other people as he drove toward the facility. The shooting at Excel Industries in Hesston, Kansas, was at least the fourth workplace shooting in the United States in the past 12 months alone. Some questions and answers about workplace shootings:

WHAT OTHER WORKPLACE SHOOTINGS HAVE TAKEN PLACE IN THE PAST 12 MONTHS?

— Aug. 26, 2015: Alison Parker and Adam Ward of Roanoke, Virginia, TV station WDBJ were fatally shot by former employee Vester Lee Flanagan II during a live broadcast. The person they were interviewing was wounded. Flanagan fatally shot himself after a police chase.

— Feb. 23, 2015: An employee of armed security company Shields Business Solutions in Moorestown, New Jersey, opened fire on a co-worker inside the business before fatally shooting himself outside amid what police described as an “ongoing domestic situation.” Moorestown Police Lt. Lee Lieber said Edgar Figueroa killed himself after shooting Melvin Nieves four times.

— Feb. 12, 2015: Truck driver Jeffrey DeZeeuw got into an argument over a delivery with a supervisor at a Sioux Steel Co. location known as ProTec, in Lennox, South Dakota. DeZeeuw later returned, fatally shot the supervisor and wounded worker Kathy Steever. He also injured another employee, Brian Roesler, who confronted DeZeeuw and is credited with likely preventing more injuries or deaths. DeZeeuw then killed himself.

OSHA National Conference Addresses Workplace Violence

LAS VEGAS, NV – OSHA Deputy Assistant Secretary Jordan Barab provided the keynote address at a national conference of Veterans Administration hospital workers in Las Vegas last week.

The conference, held by the American Federation of Government Employees, brought together representatives and partners of the host organizations to update and educate them on key and emerging occupational safety and health issues.

Barab highlighted OSHA’s ongoing work with VA hospitals and other healthcare facilities to combat workplace violence, including the release last year of Guidelines for Preventing Workplace Violence for Healthcare and Social Service Workers*.

He also discussed the agency’s efforts to ensure that OSHA inspectors have the resources, training and tools necessary to conduct inspections in response to workplace violence.

Barab told the delegates that “care of our nation’s veterans is a national priority, but we also have to look out for the health and safety those who care for them. He added: “workplace violence remains a difficult and dangerous problem, particularly for those in healthcare settings.”