The Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) – General Duty Clause


Under OSHA employers have a “general duty” to provide employees with work and a workplace free from “recognized hazards that are causing or are likely to cause death or serious physical harm.” Workplace violence prevention has generally been accepted as falling under the auspices of this “general duty clause” when hazards involved:


• create a ‘significant risk’ to employees in other than ‘a freakish or utterly implausible concurrence of circumstances,’ (see Langer Roofing and Sheet Metal Co., Inc. v. OSHRC 1 )


• are known to the employer and are considered hazards in the employer’s business or industry2 and


• are ones which the employer can reasonably be expected to prevent.3


Workplace violence is unique as a workplace hazard because unlike other hazards it does not involve a work process or the weather, but instead an act committed by a thinking mobile person. Because workplace violence is perpetrated by a person OSHA categorizes incidents based on the relationship between the assailant and the worker or workplace:


• Violence by Strangers: an individual that has no legitimate relationship with an employee or the employer, e.g., a robber of a convenient store.


• Violence by Customers/Clients: In these incidents, the violence is committed by someone who receives a service provided by a business, such as a current or former customer, client or patient, a passenger, a criminal suspect or a prisoner.


• Violence by Co-Workers: In co-worker incidents, the perpetrator has an employment relationship with the workplace. The perpetrator can be a current or former employee, a prospective employee, a current or former supervisor or a manager. Co-worker violence that occurs outside the workplace, but which resulted or arose from the employment relationship would be included in this category. This type of violence can again be divided into two types. violence between supervisors and subordinates, and violence between workers at the same levels.


• Violence by Personal Relations: In personal relations incidents, the violence is committed by someone who has a personal relationship with the worker, such as a current or former spouse or partner, a relative or a friend. Included in this category is the perpetrator who has a personal dispute with the worker and enters the workplace to harass, threaten, injure or kill.


Definition of Workplace Violence:


Surprisingly, there is much debate amongst Security, Human Resources, Safety, Threat Management and Workplace Violence Prevention experts on a specific definition of workplace violence. For example, the academic community tends to favor the use of the term aggression instead of violence, however, for the most part the business community still uses the term violence. Due to the varying definitions we have included a few of the key ones below:


ASIS International and Society for Human Resources Management Joint Workplace Violence Prevention Standard defines workplace violence as a spectrum of behaviors – including overt acts of violence, threats, and other conduct – that generates a reasonable concern for safety from violence, where a nexus exists between the behavior and the physical safety of employees and others (such as customers, clients, and business associates) on-site, or off-site when related to the organization.


©National Institute for Prevention of Workplace Violence, Inc.


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