Towards a National Prevention Strategy for Workplace Violence in Canada

1. Towards a National Prevention Strategy for Workplace Violence in Canada Union of Taxation Employees National Health and Safety Conference October 24, 2010 Anthony Pizzino National Director Research, Job Evaluation, Health and Safety Canadian Union of Public Employees

2. Introduction As an occupational health and safety hazard, violence in Canadian workplaces has been propelled from relative obscurity in the 1980’s to one of today’s leading health and safety problem.

3. What is Workplace Violence? Workplace violence generally covers insults, threats or physical and psychological aggression exerted by people from outside the workplace (patients, customers, clients, students, etc.) against a worker. There may be racial or sexual dimensions to the violence.

4. What about bullying and harassment? Different names – similar problems: Psychological Harassment (Quebec) Moral Harassment (France) Violence, Moral Harassment, Sexual Harassment (Belgium) Victimization at work (Sweden) Mobbing (Leymann) Bullying (Schmidl- Mohl, Needham) Intimidation (Paoli) Moral Harassment (Hirigoye)

5. Bullying: no internationally-accepted definition The International Labour Office (ILO): “Workplace bullying constitutes offensive behaviour through vindictive, malicious or humiliating attempts to undermine an individual or groups of employees.” The European Union and WorkSafe Victoria (Australia): “Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee, or groups of employees, that creates a risk to health and safety.”

6. Bullying • Can include subtle acts like devaluation of an individual’s work or social isolation. • Bullying can encompasses both physical, verbal and psychological violence.

7. Factors that increase the probability of violence: An organizational culture that condones violent behaviour. An organization that fails to recognize violence as a problem. Working with the public. Handling cash. Working alone. Poor interpersonal relationships between management and workers. Organizational change.

8. Factors that increase the probability of bullying: An organizational culture that condones bullying behaviour. An organization that fails to recognize bullying as a problem. Working alone. Poor interpersonal relationships between management and workers. Poor relationship between co-workers. Organizational change.

9. The link to violence Bullying can and does lead to violence. However, there is a tendency to mix or misuse the terms of workplace bullying and workplace violence. Workplace violence concentrates on behaviour that has criminal aspects (or would be considered criminal if it occurred outside the workplace). Behaviour that falls within the concept of bullying is less likely to have criminal aspects.

10. (Psychological) Harassment is: A global problem that is relatively unknown and underestimated. A form of worker abuse arising from unethical behavior that leads to victimization. A problem that affects work performance, health and quality of life.

11. “Internal Violence” Contributors: • Overwork • Workplace stress • Workplace with a rigid management style • Management style that is based on threats and intimidation rather than reward and recognition • Management style that rewards only productivity • Workplaces that lack conflict resolutions skills • Downsizing and restructuring

12. What is the extent of workplace violence? • “Occupational violence is a problem around the world” Di Martino and Chappell, 2006 • Workplace violent crime: • In the U.S. in 2005: 792 workplace deaths attributable to workplace violence • Provincial Canadian statistics are difficult to gather, but…

13. What is the extent of the problem? In Canada in 2006: • 20% of violent victimization, including physical assault, sexual assault and robbery occurred at work. • 71% of the incidents were classified as physical assaults. • There was a high proportion of incidents against those working in accommodation or food services, retail or wholesale trade, and educational services sectors. • Violent incidents that occurred in the workplace were twice as likely to be reported to the police than those occurring outside of the workplace (37% compared to 17%). Criminal Victimization in the Workplace by Sylvain de Léséleuc Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (Available from the Statistics Canada website: www.statcan.ca )

14. What is the extent of the problem? “Our findings are deeply troubling” Out of Control: Violence Against Personal Support Workers in Long-Term Care Banerjee and Armstrong, 2008 • Almost all (89.7%) of personal support workers indicated that they had experienced some form of physical violence while at work. • Nearly half (43.0%) reported that physical violence occurred more or less every day.

15. What is the extent of the problem? • Most incidents of violence go unreported. • Violence remains invisible and unaddressed. • Workers don’t report violence because they don’t have the time to complete the paperwork. • They don’t believe anything will be done. • They are afraid of being blamed. • They are expected to tolerate this abuse as part of the job. Out of Control: Violence Against Personal Support Workers in Long-Term Care Banerjee and Armstrong, 2008

16. Solving problems: The principles involved are basically the same ones used to deal with other occupational health and safety hazards: • identify the problem; • solve it using a preventive focus; • involve the workers affected, and then • monitor the effectiveness of the preventive intervention.

17. Bad ideas • In the rush to “solutions”, training companies, law firms and some consultants are flooding the market with questionable products and services. • Included are: • Seminars on how to be shielded from legal liability • Guidelines on formulating “zero-tolerance policies” • Pre-employment screening approaches • Instruments to “profile” violence-prone employees

18. Bad ideas • Lead to overreactions. • Most focus exclusively on violence perpetrated by workers. • In reality: • The “revenge killing” or “disgruntled worker” scenario comprises a very small part of the full scope of workplace violence. • Vastly more workers are threatened, beaten or harrassed. • The “disgruntled worker” scenario is newsworthy, yet is a small part of the problem.

19. Legislation for the prevention of workplace violence • All Canadian employers have a duty to protect workers from violence in the workplace. • Some jurisdictions – Federal, BC, AB, SK, MB, NS, PEI, ON – have enacted specific OHS legislated provisions on violence in the workplace. • QC has broader provisions in its Labour Standards Act, which includes preventing psychological harassment. • Saskatchewan has expanded definition of harassment to include abuse of power and bullying.

20. Prevention suggestions Establish and enforce OSH legislation for the prevention of violence in the workplace, bullying and harassment. Negotiate strong collective agreement language to address occupational health and safety, including violence, bullying and harassment.

21. Prevention suggestions Involve the joint occupational health and safety committee and the union. Define and acknowledge violence as an occupational hazard. Develop a “no violence/ no bullying/ no harassment” policy which has senior management commitment. Provide information to workers about the potential for violence.

22. Prevention suggestions Provide education and training on what is violence, and appropriate responses to violence. Recognise the importance of workplace design and work organisation. Improve the psycho-social work environment, including moving away from authoritarian management styles. Establish mandatory reporting of violent incidents.

23. Prevention suggestions Develop a credible, prompt and objective investigation process. Provide support for affected workers. Consider prosecution of assailants. Monitor effectiveness.

24. Resources • The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety: • www.ccohs.ca/oshanswers/ • Quebec labour standards on psychological harassment can be found here: • www.cnt.gouv.qc.ca/en • The European Union Agency for Safety and Health at Work has information on stress, bullying, violence and harassment: • http://osha.europa.eu/en

25. Thank you!