Organizational Responsibility and OSHA
The General Duty clause of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 provides all workers the right to a safe workplace by requiring employers to provide a safe and healthful workplace free of known dangers and hazards, and workplace violence is a recognized hazard within healthcare and other industries. Employers whose employees are at risk of workplace violence have an obligation under OSHA to abate the hazard, not only by relying on employee compliance with personal protective practices, but also by making feasible changes in working conditions.
There are a variety of workplace safety laws, including state-specific workplace violence prevention acts enacted by some states. For example, California has enacted the Violence Prevention in Healthcare Act requiring that all covered employers “establish, implement and maintain an effective workplace violence prevention plan… specific to the hazards and corrective measures for the unit, service, or operation.” Some state laws also protect employees against employer retaliation if they are targeted for harassment or violence for any reason.
A Labor and Employment attorney in the state where your organization operates can help you fully understand your organization's legal responsibility to protect your people.
Under OSHA’s promulgated Enforcement Procedures and Scheduling for Occupational Exposure To Workplace Violence, “an employer that has experienced acts of workplace violence [including threats of assaults], or becomes aware of threats, intimidation, or other indicators showing that the potential for violence in the workplace exists, would be on notice of the risk of workplace violence and should implement a workplace violence prevention program combined with engineering controls, administrative controls, and training.”
OSHA recommends a Violence Prevention program consisting of (1) Management commitment and employee participation, (2) Worksite analysis, (3) Hazard prevention and control, (4) Safety and health training, and (5) Recordkeeping and program evaluation.
Employers operating in areas targeted by the anti-LGBTQ+ right, including but not limited to LGBTQ+ Advocacy and the provision of gender-affirming care are at considerable risk for workplace violence, including the threats and intimidation associated with online and online-to-offline harassment. This violent targeting can also extend to employers whose work is unrelated to advocacy or gender-affirming care, but who have been associated with the LGBTQ+ community in some way, including libraries that host Drag Story Hours, schools and universities that teach about targeted topics or employ LGBTQ+ teachers, or beer companies that contract with a transgender spokesmodel.
Accordingly, these employers are responsible for developing and implementing a Violence Prevention program that accounts for the trends and scope of this type of harassment. Failure to do so leaves the mitigation of the threat of violence to reliance on employee personal protective practices, which is a violation of the standards of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.
The recommendations herein offer a proposed basis for an effective Violence Prevention Program to allow these employers to fulfill their obligations to their employees under OSHA and relevant state laws.
