After a tragic shooting or other violent event with multiple victims occurs, either in or outside the workplace, there are often strong calls for legislation or workplace policies to prevent future incidents, along with a wave of moral outrage over what occurred.
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Eight members of the public were shot during an incident of workplace violence in New York City. All were expected to survive their injuries, but the gunman is dead, along with a 41-year-old former co-worker of the shooter.
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Odds of winning the lottery: 1 in 135,145,920 (multi-state, mega-millions jackpot)
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A Toronto Transit System (TTS) ticket collector suffered life-threatening injuries after he was shot in the neck and shoulder area during a recent robbery attempt.
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Violence in the American workplace is “clearly an epidemic” according to a new survey of 1,030 workers conducted by AlliedBarton Security Services.
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An extreme case of sexual harassment, in which 21 Hispanic female janitorial workers were victims of unwelcome touching, explicit sexual comments, indecent exposure from males and even rape in one case, has resulted in a $5.8 million settlement.
ABM industries, Inc. and subsidiaries ABM Janitorial Services, Inc. and ABM Janitorial Service Northern California, Inc. have settled the suit with the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The sexual harassment started in 2001 and continued until 2007, when the EEOC filed suit against ABM. The suit charged that the company failed to respond to the employees’ repeated complaints of harassment, which created a dangerous and sexually hostile work environment.
“This settlement serves as a reminder to employers that they must remain vigilant in preventing and remedying harassment in their workplace,” says EEOC Chair Jacqueline Berrien.
Along with paying the settlement to the 21 victims, ABM must meet several requirements, including providing anti-harassment training to its employees in both English and Spanish, ensuring that investigators of harassment complaints are thoroughly trained to investigate internal complaints of discrimination, harassment and retaliation and ensuring that workers are not subjected to harassment and retaliation.
Read MoreJesse Mengler’s baseball pitching skills were probably never put to better use than when he was attacked by a charging bear while working near Castlegar, BC, Canada.
When Mengler spotted a bear charging toward him, he clapped his hands and yelled, but the bear was not deterred.
Knowing he would never reach his truck in time, Mengler threw a rock at the charging bear, striking it between the eyes and knocking it out.
Mengler didn’t stick around to see whether the animal regained consciousness. He says he has had plenty of bear encounters before, but never seen a bear act so aggressively.
Read MoreMinutes after she was suspended from her job at a Kraft Foods Inc. plant and escorted out of the building in Philadelphia, PA, a woman returned with a handgun, killing two co-workers and injuring a third worker.
Yvonne Hiller, 43, of Philadelphia was taken into custody after the shootings. Police say she had been employed at the plant for 15 years and had some sort of dispute with the three co-workers who were shot.
Hiller found them in a break room with a fourth worker and ordered the fourth person out. The two workers who died were women while the injured worker was a man.
It’s rare, but not unheard of, for a woman to go on a shooting rampage. For example, a woman shot three people dead and wounded seven others at a mall in Springfield, PA, in the mid-1980s.
More recently, a former instructor/researcher at the University of Alabama-Huntsville shot six people at the campus, killing three.
Info to go: Read more about workplace violence by clicking on the Info to Go safety links at www.SafeSupervisor.com
Read MoreThe Nova Scotia Government & General Employees Union (NSGEU) recently launched a Bully-Free Workplace Program after more than a year of planning work.
The program provides either a two-hour Bully Awareness program or a more intensive six-hour Bully-Free Workplace interactive workshop to groups of workers and managers.
According to the Canada Safety Council, 75 percent of people who are bullied at work end up leaving their jobs. Bullying reduces worker productivity, increases sick time and leads to a more stressful and less-trustful workplace atmosphere.
“We know bullying exists in workplaces all across the province,” says NSGEU President Joan Jessome. “This program is affordable, accessible and it’s being led by people who have walked the walk.”
The NSGEU is providing trained facilitators and materials to run the program. Topics covered include:
After being confronted with video evidence of having committed theft, a worker at a Manchester, CT, beer distribution company opened fire on his co-workers, resulting in eight deaths and injuries to two others. He then fatally shot himself.
Omar Thornton, a 34-year-old warehouse driver at Hartford Distributors, had agreed to quit after being shown a videotape in which he was seen stealing beer. He then opened fire.
People who knew Thornton said the African American worker had complained of racial harassment. In a 911 call made after he had shot several co-workers and before taking his own life, Thornton told a dispatcher, “This place is a racist place. They treat me bad here. They treat all the black employees bad over here, too. So I had to take it into my own hands and handle the problem.”
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