Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

Domestic violence is a widespread problem with serious consequences for the victims, their families and their workplaces as well. In 2005 a national telephone survey by the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence found that 44% of the employed U.S. adults surveyed reported having personally experienced the effects of domestic violence in their workplace, and 21% identified themselves as victims. The same survey reported that 38% of respondents were “somewhat” to “extremely” concerned for their own safety when they learned that one of their co-workers was being victimized.

When is an employer responsible for workplace harassment perpetrated by one of its employees? Currently, the answer depends on where the employer is based, but with the Petition in Vance v. Ball State University, et al., the United States Supreme Court plans to settle that question on a nationwide basis.

Does your organization ever conduct internal investigations to evaluate complaints about working conditions, claims of harassment or other inappropriate behavior, or concerns about individual, or group, law-breaking? If so, investigators probably try to keep the investigation confidential, in order to avoid internal embarrassment while preserving the status quo until the investigation reaches its conclusion.

A recent news headline told the story of two nurses who were involved in a scuffle with the father of a newborn inside a New York hospital--apparently, the father was a high profile member of the Kennedy family. The conflict was triggered when he began to carry his infant son out of the hospital without the usual authorized procedures--at which point one of the nurses attempted to block him from leaving.

Does your organization have a formal workplace violence prevention policy? Requirements that employers protect their employees against workplace violence are expanding throughout North America.  For example, public agencies in New York have been required to do so since 2009 (S 6441), and most employers in Ontario have required the same since 2010 (Bill 168), while Manitoba revised longstanding requirements in 2011.