What you need to know

Violence at work: practical steps

In the last issue of Connect, we published an article that defined violence at work, looked at the reasons why people resort to violence against workers, and explained which workers are most at risk. In this article, we look at two cases where an employer failed to protect employees from violence at work and consider what employers should be doing to manage the risks.

Headlines

• While some measures to manage violence at work may involve a cost – for example, installing CCTV cameras – some measures can be achieved at low cost
• The cost of measures to manage violence at work should be weighed against the costs of allowing an incident to occur – sick leave, disruption to work, poor morale among staff, higher recruitment costs, loss of reputation among customers, time investigating circumstances
• Failure to protect your workers against violence at work can result in expensive legal cases and payouts of over £200,000
• Occupational violence in the USA is much worse than in the UK. NIOSH reports that between 1992 and 2006 there was an average of just under 800 workplace homicides a year in the US. The US Monthly Labor Review in 2005 reported that for women at work, homicide was the leading cause of death.

Case law

In the previous article, we established that the Health and Safety at Work Act (1974) and the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations (1999) places a duty of care on an employer to identify, prevent and control the risk of violence at work. The failure of an employer to exercise its duty of care to protect an employee from assault and attack from someone outside the organisation can result in expensive legal action.

In the case of Collins v First Quench Retailing Ltd (2003) despite a history of raids on an Edinburgh off-licence, First Quench had refused requests for double staffing, and Ms Collins was expected to work on her own during the day. She was attacked at work by a man holding a knife to her throat and, although physically unharmed, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. Ms Collins was awarded £179,000 in compensation. 

In December 2008, The London Borough of Newham paid £250,000 to a teacher following an assault by a 12-year-old pupil. The headteacher had failed to warn teachers about the child’s violent past.

Protection of the law

In addition to specific health and safety law, we are all covered, whether at work or not, by the Protection from Harassment Act (1997) which makes it an offence to pursue a course of conduct which may cause harassment, alarm or distress to another person. 

People who work for the emergency services in Scotland have the added protection of the Emergency Workers (Scotland) Act (2005). This Act makes it an offence to obstruct or hinder an emergency worker or ‘any vehicle, apparatus, equipment or other thing or any animal’ being used by an emergency worker, including ‘by means other than physical means’. All workers employed in professions involving face-to-face contact with the public in Scotland (for example, bus drivers, frontline local government staff and utility company workers) could have a similar level of protection if the Workers (Aggravated Offences) Bill becomes legislation through the Scottish Parliament. 

There’s no equivalent law in England, Wales and Northern Ireland as it’s thought that the existing laws on assault will cover such offences. The Emergency Workers (Obstruction) Act 2006 provides sanctions against the obstruction of emergency workers in these three countries. The Police Act 1996 defines a specific offence of assaulting a police officer.

Employees are also protected by law against threats received by telephone, text, fax, post or email. Under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 it’s an offence to send a message via a ‘public electronic communications network’ which is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or menacing character. The Malicious Communications Act 1988 as amended in 2001 makes it an offence to send indecent, offensive or threatening letters, electronic communications or articles with the intention of causing distress or anxiety to those receiving them.

What can you do to guard against violence at work?

HSE outlines a four-stage process:

Stage 1: find out if you have a problem. Conduct a survey, consult employees and their representatives and keep records of even minor incidents
Stage 2: decide what action to take. Identify the risk areas and decide what needs to be done to reduce the risks
Stage 3: take action. Action may involve environmental changes, training or job design
Stage 4: check what you have done. Continue to monitor incidents and watch for patterns.

What action can you take?

Not all measures are expensive. For example, a good physical layout where co-workers can see each other should cost no more than a poor layout; check-in systems need cost no more than the price of a phone call to operate. The lists below suggest possible environmental measures, training needs and job design issues.

Environmental measures to reduce violence include:

• improved lighting
• improved comfort in waiting areas, eg comfortable and sufficient seating, interesting and pleasant décor, magazines, children’s play areas
• physical devices to provide information on queuing times, and to demonstrate to all that queuing is fair, eg ticket systems with an electronic number display used in hospitals and some shops
• physical barriers such as booths for night-service petrol stations or assault screens for bus drivers
• closed-circuit television, particularly for high-risk entrances and exits
  personal and hidden (eg under the counter) panic alarms
• telephones and call buttons, including 999 speed dial
• coded security locks
• physical layout to allow co-workers to see each other and monitor their safety.
  
  Training requirements to manage violence at work include:
  
• make sure that staff know to provide customers with appropriate information, eg information about delays on train journeys and on refund policies at the point of sale
• teach staff how to recognise the signs of increasing aggression and know when to deal assertively and when to back down or leave a situation
• emphasis on customer service, self-control and knowing how to acknowledge a customer’s concern
• encourage staff to report minor incidents in order to recognise and tackle problems early on.
  
  Job design to reduce violence may include:
  
• doubling up and buddy systems
• check-in systems for lone workers
• maintaining adequate staffing for the task, time of day and location
• checks that a delivery address is genuine, and that it hasn’t been blacklisted
• keeping potential weapons out of the way eg promptly collect empty glasses in a night club, prohibit knives in a school or sports ground
• reducing the amount of cash held, eg a window cleaner asking for payment by cheque or standing order, a taxi driver banking money in a safe place during the shift rather than only at the end.

IOSH links

Previous articles on workplace violence in Connect:

Issue 22
Issue 43

Links

For more detail of action to take to reduce risks of work-related violence see:

Tackling crimes against small businesses
HSE case studies  
HSE violence sub-site
TUC violence section 
ILO violence and stress at work section
The UNISON booklet Violence at Work: a guide to risk prevention takes you through the steps of assessing and managing risks from violence at work.
The National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) provides guides for leaders and managers, union representatives and teachers on the risk assessment of violent and abusive behaviour, with an example risk assessment.