Preventing Workplace Violence
May 11, 2013 No CommentsA few years ago I was an EHS manager at a company that had a worker violence incident that put one employee in the hospital. A supervisor in his late 50’s fired a 20 year old employee. The supervisor was loud and demeaning when firing the employee.
The younger employee went home, got drunk, returned to the workplace and beat up the supervisor who had fired him. The supervisor was seriously hurt, taken to the local hospital, and eventually recovered.
In the ASSE’s January 2013 Professional Safety magazine, is an article written by lawyer Mark A. Lies II entitled “Dealing With A Hostile Employee: Avoiding Workplace Violence“. This article is designed to help employers prevent the type of workplace incident that I just described. This article addresses:
- Acknowledge Co-Employee Complaints
- Commence Investigation
- Interim Protection
- Police Involvement
- Employer Obligations
- Employee Legal Rights
- Reaching a Conclusion
- Threat Assessment
- Termination Scenario
- Hardening the Work Site