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Legal Alert:Public Sector Employers Have Failed to Comply with the New York Sate Workplace Violence
By: Melissa Fleischer, Esq.
Public sector employers in New York State need to get in compliance with the New York State Workplace Violence Prevention Act. Originally passed on June 7, 2006 and effective on March 4, 2007, the law requires all New York public employers to develop a workplace violence prevention program and to provide training to all of their employees on preventing workplace violence.
The final regulations drafted by the Department of Labor pursuant to this law were issued on April 29, 2009 and required employers to be in compliance by August 27, 2009. Apparently however, according to New York State Assemblyman Rory Lancman, Chairman for the New York State Subcommittee on Workplace Safety, only half of the public agencies in New York have complied with the law and provided the training it requires despite the fact that these New York State Agencies had until August 2009 to comply. Moreover, about 45% of the employers have still failed to develop the required workplace violence prevention program for their workplaces.
Based on statistics from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, workplace violence injuries from assaults and other violent acts against state government employees in New York have increased 26.7 percent. Yet despite this huge increase in incidents of workplace violence, the New York State Subcommittee on Workplace Safety found in response to its recent survey that most state agencies and public employers have failed to comply with the law.
As President and Founder of HR Learning Center, a full-service HR consulting firm specializing in providing workplace violence prevention training to both private and public employers, I find this unbelievable. Immediately when this law was passed, our firm began developing workplace violence prevention training programs and began presenting them to various public employers in New York to ensure their compliance with the law. The requirements for compliance with this law are not that cumbersome and it is unfortunate that more public agencies have not complied.
So exactly what does the New York State Workplace Violence Prevention Law require? The New York State Law as well as the New York State Department of Labors final regulations pursuant to the law requires New York public employers to do the following:
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Conduct a workplace safety risk evaluation looking for risks in the individual workplace as well as patterns of safety issues that need to be addressed; and
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Prepare a written workplace violence prevention program for all public employers with more than 20 full-time employees; and
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Draft a workplace violence prevention policy; and
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Provide workplace violence prevention training for all employees from the date they are first assigned to their jobs and annually thereafter.
What should public employers do to ensure compliance with this law today and avoid future liability for workplace violence incidents? Conduct a workplace safety risk evaluation and develop a written workplace violence prevention program. This workplace violence prevention program should include a list of the workplace violence risk factors that were identified in the risk evaluation as well as the methods the employer will use to prevent any incidents of violence in its workplace. It also should include a system for reporting instances of workplace violence as well as a written outline of the workplace violence prevention training the employer will provide to its employees. This written workplace violence prevention program should be reviewed and updated at least one a year.
In addition, compliance with the New York State law will also require public sector employers to draft a workplace violence prevention policy that sets forth the individuals within your workplace who are to receive workplace violence incident reports and who are responsible for responding to such workplace violence incident reports. The policy should also include a provision setting forth that all employees will be protected from retaliation of any kind for filing a complaint or in any way acting in accordance with the requirements of this law. Last, but certainly not least, ensure that you have provided training to all of your managers and employees on methods to prevent violence in your workplace as well as on your workplace violence prevention program and policy.
Submitted by: Melissa Fleischer, Esq.
President and Founder
HR Learning Center LLC
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