Yale case shines light on workplace violence

By Eve Tahmincioglu , MSNBC

The killing of Yale student Annie Le has shined a spotlight on the issue of workplace violence after police arrested a colleague at the lab where she worked and charged him with murder.

“It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime, but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country,” said New Haven, Conn., Police Chief James Lewis said after announcing the arrest of suspect Raymond Clark III.

Police reportedly are considering whether the killing may have stemmed from a workplace dispute between Le and Clark.

Workplace violence is growing and has become epidemic, according to some worker advocates, although work-related killings appear to be on the decline.

There were 16,840 nonfatal workplace assaults or other violent acts in 2007, the most recent year available, up 15.6 percent from 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women were twice as likely as men to be attacked on the job.

At the same time work-related homicides have fallen 52 percent since 1994 to about 507 last year, according to Diana Peterson, a spokeswoman at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

While homicides are down, many workplace experts believe overall violence has been rising because of the recession.

“Since 2008 there has been a rise in workplace violence due to increasing pressure in the workplace,” said Sara Begley with Reed Smith, a law firm representing employers. “Drastic reductions in force, fewer people to perform same workload, no bonuses, economic downturn, lost 401(k) accounts.”

“While workplace homicides have declined, assault, threats, bullying, cyberbullying and sexual harassment and stalking have increased,” she said. “Disgruntled employees who are out of work and have mounting bills often lash out at their employer and feel they have nothing to lose by doing so.”

Many workplace advocates believe the number of workers being assaulted on the job is underreported by the Labor Department, which mainly tracks private sector jobs.

Public employees comprise only 16 percent of the national work force but 33 percent of the assaults, said Jonathan Rosen, director of occupational safety and health for the New York Public Employee Federation. The reason is that public-sector employees often work in places where assaults are more likely such as prisons, hospitals and social service agencies.

He said workplace violence is “epidemic.”

He and others point to a 2001 Department of Justice report estimating that on average, 1.7 million violent crimes were committed annually against people in the workplace from 1993 to 1999, including 1.3 million simple assaults, 325,000 aggravated assaults, 36,500 rapes and sexual assaults, 70,000 robberies and 900 homicides. Updated figures are due next year.

Worker advocates believe government officials and employers need to take workplace violence seriously. And the case of the Yale murder sheds light on the issue, said Jean Haertl, director of workplace violence prevention for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

“I think he’s onto something,” she said, referring to the comments of Lewis, the New Haven police chief. “Organizations try to handle this with good intentions, but they don’t use the collaborative effort with law enforcement and they don’t have the expertise in training to respond promptly to these kinds of threats.”

She said managers need to “err on the side of caution” by calling police whenever there are threats or violent acts in the workplace.

Some occupations are more vulnerable than others, said San Diego State University human resources professor Christine Probett. She highlighted three areas:

- People who exchange money with the public.

- People who deliver goods and passengers like taxi drivers.

- People who work alone or who work late at night, especially nurses.

“One takeaway is if you work in one of these areas or occupations you should have a heightened awareness,” she said. But she added that employees everywhere should be cautious: “You can have an unstable individual anywhere.”

When it comes to violence that leads to homicide, the most common scenario is a robbery, followed by worker-on-worker violence and violence committed by a relative, according to BLS data.

“The population is under stress right now,” said Probett. “There are indications the recession is nearing an end, but unfortunately there are few job openings. Unemployment benefits are running out, and maybe people are at the end of their rope.”

Often employers are hamstrung in efforts to stem workplace violence.

Many laws, including the Americans With Disabilities Act, “protect employees with emotional illnesses from discrimination,” said David Smith, a partner with Constangy, Brooks & Smith, an employment-law firm.

These laws also require “reasonable accommodation by employers and restrict the ability of employers to deal with troubled employees” whose problems are deemed to be a disability, he said.

Another issue is the lack of clear guidelines when it comes to employer policies on workplace violence.

Smith said most employers have some sort of workplace policy but fail to communicate those guidelines to workers.

As for workers, workplace experts suggested that they immediately contact law enforcement if they feel physically threatened, something many don’t do, said Haertl, the Massachusetts official.

She estimated that only 50 percent of workers even report such crimes or threats to police. “And most employers do not advocate for their employees to call the cops if they are threatened,” she said, because many employers want to keep such matters in house.

“You have to take action immediately and don’t assume it’s going to go away,” she said. “The workplace can not tolerate this behavior.”