Book Description

Background Workplace violence is a serious safety and health hazard in many workplaces. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, homicide is the second leading cause of death to American workers, claiming the lives of 912 workers in 1996 and accounting for 15 percent of the 6,112 fatal work injuries in the United States (BLS, 1997). Violent incidents at work also resulted in 20,438 lost work-day cases in 1994 (BLS, 1996). The Department of Justice's National Crime Victimization Survey reported that from 1987 to 1992 almost 1 million persons annually were victims of violent crime at work (Bachman, 1994). These data include four categories: 615,160 simple assaults; 264,174 aggravated assaults; 79,109 robberies; and 13,068 rapes. These victimizations resulted in an estimated 159,000 injuries annually. Violence inflicted upon employees may come from many sources, including customers, robbers, muggers and co-workers. Although workplace violence may appear to be random, many incidents can be anticipated and avoided Even where a potentially violent incident occurs, a timely and appropriate response can prevent the situation from escalating and resulting in injury or death. OSHA believes that all late-night retail establishments can benefit from an examination of their workplaces to determine if workplace violence is a potential hazard for their employees.