MEMIC Safety Experts Podcast

Episode #15 | Published March 16, 2020

The OSHA General Duty clause states that every employer has the duty to provide work and a workplace that's free of recognized hazards. Workplace violence is not a traditional hazard like a piece of machinery, repetitive motion, heavy lifting, falls, or confined spaces. It’s a threat from co-workers or as OSHA defines it, clients, customers and even visitors to the workplace. Do the statistics make workplace violence a new recognized hazard?

The National Safety Council reports that in 2016, 17 percent of workplace deaths were a result of violence. And according to OSHA, about 2 million people each year report some type of workplace violence. The more you look at it, the more you see that this could happen anywhere people are at work, even your own workplace. So, as a business owner, are you prepared? Or as a worker, do you know what your employer's plan is? And as a supervisor or a leader within the workplace, do you know what action to take when it happens?

In this episode, “Are you prepared? Violence in the American workplace”, Rob Sylvester and Pete Koch take on what workplace violence is, some of the causes, some strategies for prevention, and how to be prepared if it happens.