Chapter 22 Supplement Special Topics

• Homicide is the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury in the United States. Nearly 1,000 workers are murdered and 1.5 million are assaulted in the workplace each year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) National Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), there were 709 workplace homicides in 1998, accounting for 12% of the total 6,026 fatal work injuries in the United States (BLS 1999).

• Of the 709 workplace homicide victims in 1998, 569 (80%) were shot and 61 (9%) were stabbed (Ibid).

• According to the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), assaults and threats of violence against Americans at work number almost 2 million a year. The most common type of workplace violent crime was simple assault with an average of 1.5 million a year. There were 396,000 aggravated assaults, 51,000 rapes and sexual assaults, 84,000 robberies, and 1,000 homicides (BLS 1998).

• According to the NCVS, retail sales workers were the most numerous victims, with 330,000 being attacked each year. They were followed by police, with 234,200 officers victimized (Ibid.).

• Robbery continued to be the primary motive of job-related homicide, accounting for 85% of the deaths. Disputes among co-workers and with customers and clients accounted for about one-tenth of the total (Ibid.).

• In 1997, there were 856 homicides in the workplace, down from 927 in 1996. Of this number, 630 victims (74%) were wage and salary workers and 226 (26%) were self-employed (BJS, Sourcebook, 1999, 298, Table 3.145).

• Fifty percent of all victims killed in the workplace were between twenty-five and forty-four years of age; 20% were forty-five to fifty-four years of age; 14% were fifty-five to sixty-four years of age; 10% were sixteen to twenty-four years of age; and 6% were sixty-five and older (Ibid.).

• In 1997, 85% of the victims died during robberies of their workplace; 10% were killed by work associates (7% by current and former co-workers and 3% by clients); and the remaining 5% were killed by personal acquaintances (2% by husbands or ex-husbands, 1% by boyfriends or ex-boyfriends, and 2% by other family members) (Ibid.).

• In 1997, 83% of workplace violence victims were male, and 17% were female. Sixty-eight percent of the victims were white; 18% were black; 12% were Hispanic; and the remaining 4% were of other or unspecified races (Ibid.).
• Of selected occupations examined from 1992 to 1996, law enforcement officers were the most vulnerable to be victims of workplace violence. Other occupations with high rates of victimization included private security guards, taxi drivers, prison and jail guards, and bartenders (BJS July 1999).

• In a study conducted on behalf of Liz Claiborne Inc., 57% of participating senior corporate executives agreed that domestic violence is a major problem in society. One-third of them thought that this problem has had a negative impact on their bottom lines, and 40% said that they were personally aware of employees and other individuals affected by domestic violence. Sixty-six percent believed that their company's financial performance would benefit from addressing the issue of domestic violence among their employees (FVPF 13 August 1999).

One of the most significant outcomes of research into unions and the prevention of workplace violence was the discovery of the relative absence of violence prevention provisions in union contracts. An article in Compensation and Working Conditions, Fall 1999, discussed research that indicates that unions could make important contributions to prevent workplace violence. In most labor agreements, unions and management are already committed to a safe work environment. While research shows that unions and management generally negotiate clauses on subjects affecting the health and safety of the employees, there is little known cooperation on the subject of workplace violence (Gray, Myers, and Myers Fall 1999, 5-12).

Researchers collected data in their examination of workplace violence provisions in private sector collective bargaining agreements from 1,168 contracts covering 5.2 million employees filed with the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Only 14 of the 1,168 contracts reviewed by the researchers had provisions on workplace violence, covering only 1.5 percent of the workforce (Ibid).

Furthermore, the industry data showed that while a high percentage of workplace homicides occur in the retail trades, only one out of 110 retail contracts had a single provision on workplace violence. In the healthcare industry, where 44 percent of all nonfatal assaults occur, only five out of thirty-five contracts had at least one clause that dealt with workplace violence. Of the fourteen contracts that dealt with workplace violence, fewer than five aspects of the problem were covered and only one contract had a violence response provision (Ibid).

Researchers surmised that workplace violence prevention strategies are possibly dealt with in the context of management rules of conduct, and considered a management right, but the lack of coverage in the contract language clearly reflected a limited use of collective bargaining in preventing and controlling workplace violence. Union negotiators should make workplace violence a top priority, as has been done by corporate security directors and human resource professionals who represent the companies with whom they negotiate (Ibid).

• A Minnesota organization offers theater-based training to organizations that are designed to get to the heart of problems like sexual harassment and violence in the workplace by making it safe for employees to talk about them. The organization consists of two principals and a core group of ten actors and two facilitators who come from a variety of professions, including law and organization development. Using actors to depict familiar workplace situations, theater-based trainings bring issues into the training room and demonstrate solutions to difficult problems. It provides a safe environment for employees to discuss conflict and a forum for employers to communicate important policy dos and don'ts to their employees.

• The Minnesota Center Against Violence and Abuse at the University of Minnesota (MINCAVA) serves as a clearinghouse to provide online resources on violence and abuse, and in particular, violence in the workplace. MINCAVA highlights higher education curricula used in violence education programs; lists relevant homepages in the fields of education, law, health services, and human services; and maintains abstracts of articles and papers that address concerns about workplace violence. MINCAVA, School of Social Work, University of Minnesota, 195 Peters Hall, 1404 Gortner Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55108 (800-646-2282) <http://.www.mincava.umn.edu>.

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