Workplace Violence In The Construction Industry

1. Workplace ViolenceIn The Construction Industry By: Student XXX Fall 2007

2. Definition • Workplace violence: Violent acts, behavior, or threats against workers. • This can include acts on and off the jobsite. • Can include physical or verbal assault, homicide and sexual harassment • One of the leading causes of job related death • Can damage a business, property, and image

3. Who is vulnerable • A large number of people are victims of workplace violence each year • Workplace violence accounts for 15% of all violent crime • 80% by males, 40% by strangers to victim, 35% by casual acquaintances, 19% well known to victim, and 1% by victims relatives

4. Facts • 4o% of workers say they have been screamed at, insulted, threatened with physical harm, or otherwise intimidated on the workplace • 6% of employees say they have been kicked, slapped, or assaulted with a weapon in the workplace • 70% of US workplaces do not have a program or policy on workplace violence

5. Facts • 56% are not reported to police, 26% reported to at least one official in workplace • 62% perpetrator was not armed, 30% armed with handgun • 84% have no injuries, 10% require medical attention • Estimated 500,000 employees miss 1,751,000 days of work annually, costing approximately $55 million in lost wages

6. Traits of someone who may be violent • Perpetrators of workplace violence often exhibit a pattern of behavioral characteristics that indicate their tendency for violence. Such characteristics may include: • antisocial tendencies such as isolating themselves from others • a sense of moral superiority or righteousness • an inability to get along with others • a pattern of verbal harassment or abusive behavior toward others

7. Traits of someone who may be violent • an inability to accept responsibility for mistakes or a tendency to hold grudges or blame others for problems • a tendency to feel wronged or humiliated • a fascination with guns or weapons • a habit of resisting or challenging authority; and sudden, explosive displays of temper

8. How To Handle Workplace Violence • What the Employer can do • Train employees on what behavior is acceptable • Train employees on how to handle events when they occur • Provide a secure work area • Video surveillance were appropriate • Increased lighting • Method of contacting appropriate personnel

9. How To Handle Workplace Violence • What the employees can do • Learn to recognize threats • Alert supervisors • Avoid being alone in concealed locations

10. How To Handle Workplace Violence • What should be done after an incident • Report and log all events • Report to local police • Provide medical evaluations • Discuss what happened and what went wrong • Try to learn how to avoid future • Offer counseling • Discuss changes that should be made

11. Employer liability • The OSHA General Duty Clause requires employers to provide a safe workplace • Failure to provide preventative measures can result in an OSHA fine

12. Employer liability • To the victim • Employer may be sued by victim for • Not investigating history of perpetrator • Not dealing with problem after there was reason to suspect violent behavior • Not properly supervising employees

13. Employer liability • To the perpetrator • The ADA ( Americans with Disabilities Act) prohibits discrimination against individuals with mental disabilities even if these may lead to violent outbreaks unless the employer can show reasonable proof that the individual poses a threat to himself or others in the workplace

14. Employer liability • How to minimize liability • Implement a “Zero Tolerance” policy toward violence • Include intimidation, threats, verbal abuse, harassment, profanity, and disruptive or dangerous behavior • Also have a confidential reporting method for reporting all threats or violence

15. Employer liability • develop a crisis response strategy • Identify who will contact medical and emergency personnel • Have a method of internal communication • Establish a chain of command • Arrange for counseling • Communicating with employees families, the media, customers, and suppliers in the event of a threat

16. Sample • Company Z: • Industry: Real estate/ConstructionEmployees: 14,000Situation: A CFO of a large real /estate/ construction company contacted WorkRelationships' after her company was hit with two negligent retention lawsuits in six months; this was on top of several violence in the workplace incidents that resulted in a significant increase in their worker's comp claims. In particular, the corporate counsel was interested in getting a handle on the employee turmoil which had escalated as part of a failed merger. She was also looking to evaluate the effectiveness and the efficiency of their existing employment policies and procedures as well as the consistency of their application across business units

17. Sample • The Interpersonal Risk Profile:The CFO requested that each business unit manager go through the Interpersonal Risk Audit and submit each of their reports for their corporate counsel to review. The results of the Interpersonal Risk Audits varied dramatically from business unit to business unit, indicating a need for an overall centralized location of human resource oversight. • There were, though, some similarities across units; workplace violence prevention and substance abuse awareness, for example, were consistently neglected in spite of the fact that construction is a high risk industry for employee conduct problems.

18. Sample • Results: Due to the prehire drug screening and management identification-and-referral training, substance abuse in this construction company was reduced by 20 percent in six months. Workplace violence assaults were also reduced by 40 percent due to the implementation of the construction division training program and background and reference checking system. In the real estate division, management turnover, the primary concern, was reduced by 10 percent after the company implemented a management development and retention program.

19. Sample • ROI: Company Z was experiencing increasing violence in the workplace. Over 200 employee assault complaints a year throughout its 14,000 employees. Entering this figure plus anticipated assaults over the next year the cost to this company was calculated to be $63,000,000. By implementing WorkRelationships recommendations Company Z could save themselves $22,507,380

20. Articles • Friday, May 19, 2006 • 5/16 Chicago, IL Worker Kills CEO after Poor Performance Review • Tom Tuduj is charged with murdering the CEO of a construction firm as he stabbed him to death in his office. Tuduj was hired several months ago but came to work in the morning enraged over a poor job review given the day before. Taking a knife from the office kitchen, he stabbed the president of the company till other co-workers were able to restrain him. Another worker received minor injuries. • Posted by John Lee at 10:52 PM0 comments

21. Articles • Friday, April 29, 2005 • April 20th Leominster, MA Construction Company Owner Hits and Threatens Emlployees • Walter Fiore, 58, the president of Fiore Construction Co., Inc., was charged with assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, possession of a firearm without an identification card, disorderly person, and threatening to commit a crime by Milford police. He allegedly showed up at the work site at 9 a.m. and demanded to see someone who was not present. Frustrated, he allegedly hit a 65-year-old assistant supervisor and then brandished what appeared to be a handgun. The two were past business associates. He then went to another construction site and demanded to see the man he was seeking while waving a machete. • Posted by John Lee at 12:44 PM0 comments

22. Articles • Tuesday, April 25, 2006 • 4/19 Brownsville, TX DOT Workers Assaulted by Construction Biz Owner • Ballenger Construction Co. owner Joe Charles Ballenger allegedly assaulted two senior DOT workers, a regional chief inspector and an engineer as they were inspecting a highway construction project. They had just reopened a closed traffic lane when Ballenger approached them, angry about the reopening of the lanes and then reportedly grabbed the engineer by his shirt collar and pushed him down to the ground. • Posted by John Lee at 11:07 PM0 comments • These articles cam from: http://workplaceviolence.blogspot.com/search?q=construction

23. Sexual Harassment • The construction industry has most always been a male dominated workplace, and women are often treated discriminately • NIOSH did a study that showed that in a one year period 41% of female construction workers suffered from gender harassment. In the CWIT study, 88% of the respondents reported sexual harassment.

24. Sexual Harassment • A former welder reported, I applied for an apprenticeship with the ironworkers. The men who were applying formed groups and sent someone from each group to talk to me. They threatened me. They said, 'You may get this job because of the government, but you won't leave it alive. We'll be on a site with you some day, and we'll take care of that.' At another job, every morning the men came in, punched the time clock, and then spat on the floor in front of me.

25. Sexual Harassment • Tradeswomen tell of threats of physical harm, sabotaged work, and being placed in dangerous situations by male co-workers and supervisors. The NIOSH phone survey showed that, in the past year, 10% of the women reported having their work vandalized, and 10% had experienced threats of physical violence by co-workers and/or supervisors. The following quotations from the CWIT study provide examples: I was going down a ladder one day that was, I don't know how many stories, and he [her over there and took the ladder and started shaking it. If I had fallen I'd be dead, foreman] came I was just that high. I said, 'Stop shaking the ladder,' but he kept shaking it and laughing, saying 'She's scared, she's scared.'

26. Sexual Harassment • Sexual harassment is a serious problem for female construction workers. According to a 1996 USA Today analysis of U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Bureau of Labor Statistics data, female construction workers had the second highest rate of sexual harassment complaints per 100,000 employed women.8 Female miners had the highest rate. Sexual harassment in the workplace is not only an equal employment opportunity issue but is also increasingly recognized as a safety and health issue • Sexual harassment violates laws prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature constitutes sexual harassment when: • submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment; • submission to, or rejection of, such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting such individual; or • such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working environment.

27. References • "Women in the Construction Workplace:Providing Equitable Safety and Health Protection" From OSHA • “Violence in the workplace” By Guy Toscano and William Weber • Violence articles http://workplaceviolence.blogspot.com/search?q=construction • Sample Outputs of WorkRelationships' Interpersonal Risk Management System http://www.workrelationships.com/site/ira/riskprevent_Z.htm • FACILITIES MANAGEMENT NEWS http://www.fmlink.com/News/Articles/news.cgi?catid=1000&display=article&id=22013 • Dealing with Anger in the Workplace: Avoiding Liability for Workplace Violence http://www.constructionbusinessowner.com/topics/law/dealing-with-anger-in-the-workplace-avoiding-liability-for-workplace-violence_2.html • OSHA fact sheet on workplace violence