Workplace violence and aggression occur when an employee is abused, threatened, or assaulted by either a co-worker, employer, manager, customer, or member of the general public.
In essence, the definition of workplace violence extends to any action or behaviour that could lead to an incident that impacts the health and safety of an employee.
What are some examples of workplace violence?
Workplace violence and aggression covers a broad range of actions and behaviours that create a risk to health and safety, for example:
- physical assault such as biting, scratching, hitting, kicking, pushing, grabbing, or throwing objects
- intentionally coughing or spitting on someone
- sexual assault or any other form of indecent physical contact
- harassment or aggressive behaviour that creates a fear of violence, such as stalking, sexual harassment, verbal threats and abuse, or yelling and swearing
- hazing or initiation practices for new or young workers
- gendered violence, which is any behaviour directed at any person that affects a person because of their sex, gender or sexual orientation, or because they do not adhere to socially prescribed gender roles, that creates a risk to health and safety, and
- violence from family or domestic relationship when this occurs at the workplace, including if the person's workplace is their home
Violence or aggression may happen:
- at a worker's usual workplace
- where a worker is working remotely, including if the person's workplace is their home
- in a place where the worker is undertaking work at a different location (such as a client's home) or
- when a worker is engaging in a work-related activity (such as work-related corporate event or if you host a work-related social activity like a Christmas party)
How to deal with violence in the workplace?
It is an employer’s responsibility, as far as is reasonably practical, to provide and maintain a safe and healthy work environment for all your employees, customers, visitors, and members of the general public.
In the first instance employers will be expected to have assessed potential for workplace violence and eliminated the risks as far as possible. As this is hard to guarantee in most workplaces, the employer will then be responsible for managing to further reduce the risk of the outstanding risks.
The management style that is opted for is dependent on the type of violence and the severity of the situation. Having a clear policy will provide clarity on this situation and keep employees informed on how to best respond if caught off guard in a violent situation in the workplace.
Addressing violence between workers
Violence may also occur within the workplace between your employees or workers, including supervisors, managers, apprentices, and volunteers. Violence can also occur between workers engaged by different employers, for example building contractors at the same site, delivery workers or retail workers with a tenancy at the same shopping centre.
To manage the risk of internal violence and aggression at the workplace, consider:
- setting, modelling and enforcing acceptable behaviour standards for all people in the workplace
- addressing inappropriate behaviour early and the reasons for those behaviours
- making sure employees have a range of ways to report incidents informally, formally, anonymously or confidentially
What is a workplace violence policy?
A workplace violence policy can help set out how the workplace will prevent and respond to violence and establish expectations about behaviours in the workplace.
This can be combined with the general health and safety policy or be its separate policy.
A workplace policy dealing with violence and aggression may include:
- a clear statement that the workplace will not accept any form of violence or aggression, including from clients, customers, members of the public or between workers
- examples of types of behaviours that are and are not allowed
- the control measures implemented to prevent violence at the workplace, including ensuring the risks of gendered violence are considered and addressed
- the measures and procedures for dealing with violent incidents, both at the time of the incident and after the incident
- the consequences for breaching the policy
- the duties of all levels of workers, including managers and supervisors and your responsibilities as the employer
- how workers can report a concern or incident and encouraging workers to report incidents, no matter how minor
- the process the organisation will undertake when receiving a report or dealing with a concern, and
- information about support services available and referral information for all people involved
What can employers do to prevent workplace violence?
A person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU) has a duty under WHS laws to eliminate risks to health and safety of workers and other persons so far as is reasonably practicable. If it is not reasonably practicable to eliminate risks, they must be minimised so far as is reasonably practicable.
Under WHS laws, employers must also, so far as is reasonably practicable:
- provide and maintain a work environment that is without risk to the health and safety of workers
- provide adequate and accessible facilities for the welfare of workers to carry out their work
- give workers the necessary information, instruction, training or supervision to do their job safely and without risks to health, and
- consult with workers, and health and safety representatives (HSRs) if you have them, about health and safety issues that may directly affect them
Risk management
Employers must do whatever they can to eliminate or minimise the health and safety risks of workplace violence and aggression so far as is reasonably practicable. This process is known as risk management and involves:
- identifying the hazards
- assessing the associated risks
- implementing control measures to eliminate or minimise risks, and
- regularly reviewing control measures to ensure they remain effective
Workplace violence prevention strategies and training
Whether an employer wants to prevent internal workplace violence (i.e. between employees) or violence involving customers and the general public, onsite training is an effective way to give employees the skills and knowledge they need to handle a violent scenario.
Employers can select from several reputable third-party training providers, who can potentially provide training from the convenience of your own worksite. These training sessions help employees to:
- Report, recognise, and defuse a potentially violent situation – before it erupts
- Understand their and the employer’s legal duty of care
- Familiarise themselves with procedures to deal with armed robberies, bomb threats
- Learn hospital code black training which may be relevant to employees working in the health care industry
- Study conflict resolution procedures
Depending on the provider, employers may have the freedom to customise the contents of the training course to suit the business so that employees learn how to deal with situations that relate specifically to their worksite.
Create safe workplaces with Peninsula
Implement strong and specific health and safety policies that meet the needs of your business and employees. Peninsula offers tailored HR and WHS documentation that ensures you meet all your obligations and responsibilities. Call us on 1300750491 to learn how we can help you.
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute as business or legal advice and should not be relied upon as such. It does not take into consideration your specific business, industry or circumstances. You should seek legal or other professional advice regarding matters as they relate to you or your business. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Peninsula Group disclaim all liability for any errors or omissions contained in this information or any failure to update or correct this information. It is your responsibility to assess and verify the accuracy, completeness, and reliability of the information in this article.
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