During our last SIG in Simcoe where we had the Ministry of Labour speak many companies realized they were ahead of the curve because they had a

Violence in the Workplace policy and had communicated and trained their employees on it.  However the missing piece seemed to be that they hadn't done any risk assessments in their plants.  So we turned to the Health care industry to see how they conducted the assessments and for what to be aware of.  They provided us with some fantastic resources http://www.emccanada.org/membersonl/ontario/brantford/violenceassessmentnov2009pdf  and http://www.emccanada.org/membersonl/ontario/brantford/violenceassessmentstepsnovember2009pdf

During the discussion we determined the top 5 risk assessments that should be done in most manufacturing organizations are as follows:

1.        Domestic/family violence - this can be ex spouses; parent/child; siblings

2.       Parking lot at shift change; especially an issue with 3 shift operations; can you provide an escort for an employee; is your parking lot well lit; do you have video surveillance

3.       Physical fighting between staff - need to make a strong company stance that this is not tolerated; one suggestion was if this happens to make it a mandatory referral to your EAP for anger management training

4.       Verbal abuse/position power - Make sure your supervisors/team leads know that they need to treat their employees with respect

5.       Receptionist/Shipping and Receiving - these are the 2 key entry points into your building; what safeguards do you have in place to protect these employees; some ideas include panic buttons; 2-way radios and a locked door that visitors have to be buzzed in.

Some questions and concerns with no concrete came up as well.  Specifically where does the obligation of the company end.  For example what happens if 2 employees get in a bar fight on a Saturday night.  This part is not the company's issues - however if one of the employees comes to you Monday morning and tells you about the situation and says they don't want to work beside the employee they were in a fight with  then it becomes your issues and you have to accommodate (switch workstation location, switch shifts, provide escorts to their car).

Another concern was that when doing an investigation co-workers may not want to speak up.  Remember this is a health and safety issue and must be investigated and taken seriously.

It goes back to the basics in that communication is key. Make sure your employees know what the expectation is; how to report violence and that it will not be tolerated. 

What other questions do you have regarding Violence Risk Assessments?

Thanks again to LEC Steel for hosting a great event! For more information on the Brantford and Region SIGs, please contact Laura Gibson, Field Service Advisor at 519-304-4648 or by e-mail at lgibson@emccanada.org.