Violence and the Workplace: Conference to Be Held February 17, 2000

• Publication year: 2000
• Pages: 17

29 Colo.Law. 17 Colorado Lawyer 2000.

2000, January, Pg. 17. Violence and the Workplace: Conference to be Held February 17, 2000

---

17

Vol. 29, No. 1, Pg. 17

The Colorado Lawyer
January 2000
Vol. 29, No. 1 [Page 17]

Features

Violence and the Workplace: Conference to be Held February 17, 2000
by Barbara McDonnell

The Colorado Attorney General’s Office, Colorado Bar Association, and other public and private sector organizations are sponsoring a one-day conference on workplace violence. The conference is scheduled for Thursday February 17, 2000, at the Arvada Center, and is designed to raise awareness of the impact, warning signs, and frequency of workplace violence; educate employers about appropriate response and prevention strategies; spur employers to take action to address this issue; and provide resources and materials that effectively address violence prevention. The conference will be certified for continuing legal education credits. Conference program highlights and the conference agenda are printed at the end of this article. The registration fee is $85 through February 4, 2000, and $95 thereafter. To register, contact: CLE in Colorado, Inc. at (303) 860-0608

This article highlights topics to be addressed at the conference noted above. These issues should be of interest to all Colorado attorneys who represent employers, as well as those who are employers. They include employer liability and responsibility; risk assessment; cost to employers of workplace violence; impact on employees; policy and program suggestions; and how domestic violence impacts the workplace

Statistics on Workplace Violence

In March 1999, Pinkerton, Inc. released a survey of Fortune 1000 security executives on the top security threats facing corporate America. The survey was dominated by employee-related concerns, and workplace violence was rated as the most important security threat. Although deaths due to workplace violence have decreased in the last two years, it still is the second leading cause of death in American workplaces. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries,1 there were 860 workplace homicides in 1997 and 709 workplace homicides in 1998. In 1999, there have been a number of well-publicized instances of workplace violence, including the shootings at Columbine High School, and in Atlanta, Hawaii, and Seattle.

The Department of Justice’s National Crime Victimization Survey2 reports that, from 1992 to 1996, there were almost two million assaults and threats of violence per year against Americans at work. The most common type of workplace violence was simple assault, with an average of 1.5 million incidents a year: 396,000 aggravated assaults; 51,000 rapes and sexual assaults; 84,000 robberies; and 1,000 homicides. These statistics do not reflect the loss of productivity and adverse effects on employee morale of more common forms of workplace violence, such as...