New Board Policy Promotes
Safe Work Environment

The law has long imposed upon employers a general duty to ensure that work premises are reasonably safe. Workers compensation and tort law principles dictate that employers who do not honor this duty may be liable for injuries their employees might suffer.

Employers have recently become aware, however, of an increasingly prominent threat to their employees' safety: workplace violence.

Various surveys, including findings by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, indicate that the number of workplace violence incidents is on the rise. This increase is no doubt due in part to a broadened definition of workplace violence; the term now includes homicides, physical attacks, rapes, aggravated and other assaults, threats, intimidation, coercion, various forms of harassment, and acts that might create a hostile work environment.

The costs of workplace violence are both financial and emotional. The Workplace Violence Research Institute estimates that the cost to employers due to workplace violence (measured in missed days of work and legal fees) was $35.4 billion in 1995.

Incidents of workplace violence exact more than a financial toll. Employees witnessing violent acts in the workplace report increased levels of stress and lower morale, which may lead in turn to diminished productivity, increased absenteeism, and turnover.

The US Department of Labor lists the occupations most at risk for homicide as taxi cab drivers or chauffeurs, gas station employees, retail clerks, police officers, and fast food and lodging services personnel.

Workplace violence, however, includes offenses other than homicide. Harassment is the most common form of on-the-job workplace violence with 16 million workers being harassed each year.

Other violent acts can include stalking, threats, inappropriate communication, trespassing, telephone and e-mail harassment, property defacing, invasion of privacy, and confining or restraining victims.

In the interest of promoting a safe environment for employees, students and visitors, the MCCCD's Governing Board earlier this year enacted a Workplace Violence Prevention Policy.

Incidents of workplace violence-while not frequent-pose a threat to modern workers. The Governing Board's new policy is, among other things, an example of efforts to maintain a reasonably safe environment for employees, students, and the community Maricopa serves.

Published in the Spring 2002 Edition of In Brief