Under the law, “workplace violence” is defined as any act of violence or threat of violence that occurs in a place of employment, including:
- The threat or use of physical force directed at an employee with a high likelihood of causing injury, or have caused an injury, psychological trauma or stress.
- An incident involving the threat or use of a firearm or a dangerous weapon.
A “threat of violence” is an oral or written statement or any behavioral or physical conduct that conveys, or is reasonably perceived to convey, an intent to cause harm or fear of physical harm with no legitimate purpose. Oral or written statements include text messages, social media messages, and other electronic messages or online posts.
An employee need not suffer an actual injury for the act or threat to constitute workplace violence.
Lawful acts of self-defense or defense of others are not considered workplace violence, and you don't have to comply with this law for those acts.
Like federal OSHA, the new California law differentiates four different types of workplace violence. They are:
- “Type 1 violence,” which is committed by a person who has no legitimate business at the worksite and includes violent acts by anyone who enters the workplace or approaches workers with the intent to commit a crime.
- “Type 2 violence,” which is directed at employees by customers, clients, patients, students, inmates, or visitors.
- “Type 3 violence,” which is committed against an employee by a present or former employee, supervisor, or manager; and
- “Type 4 violence,” which is committed in the workplace by a person who does not work there but has or is known to have had a personal relationship with an employee.
Workplace Violence Prevention Plan
Employers subject to the workplace violence prevention standards are required to create, maintain, and implement a written workplace violence prevention plan.
This plan may be incorporated as part of your Injury and Illness Prevention Program (IIPP), which all employers are required to create and maintain to communicate with employees about workplace hazards, establish procedures to identify and correct these hazards, and provide employee training whenever you are made aware of a new or previously unrecognized hazard.
- Names or job titles of the people responsible for implementing the plan. If there are multiple people implementing the plan, their roles must be described in the plan.
- Procedures for obtaining employees' and authorized representatives' input, such as identification or correction of workplace violence hazards, when developing and implementing the plan.
- Methods to coordinate the implementation of the plan with other employers and their employees as needed.
- Procedures to accept and respond to reports of workplace violence, and to prohibit retaliation for making a report.
- Procedures that ensure that supervisory and nonsupervisory employees comply with the plan, such as rewarding compliance or disciplining for violations.
- Procedures for communicating with employees regarding workplace violence matters, including, but not limited to, both of the following:
- How an employee can report a violent incident, threat or other workplace violence concern to the employer or law enforcement without fear of reprisal.
- How employee concerns will be investigated, and how employees will be informed of the investigation's results and any corrective actions.
- Procedures to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies, including, but not limited to, all the following:
- Alerting employees of the presence, location, and nature of workplace violence emergencies.
- Evacuation or sheltering plans that are appropriate and feasible for the worksite.
- Obtaining help from staff assigned to respond to workplace violence emergencies (if any), security personnel (if any) and law enforcement.
- Procedures to develop and provide training required under this law.
- Procedures to identify and evaluate workplace violence hazards, including, but not limited to, scheduled periodic inspections. Inspections must also be conducted when the plan is first established, after each workplace violence incident, and whenever the employer is made aware of a new or previously unrecognized workplace violence hazard.
- Procedures to timely correct workplace violence hazards discovered during inspections.
- Procedures for post-incident response and investigation.
- Procedures to review the plan's effectiveness and revise it as needed. This includes, but is not limited to, reviewing the plan at least annually, reviewing when a deficiency is observed or becomes apparent, and reviewing after a workplace violence incident.
- Any other requirements Cal/OSHA implements.
The plan must be specific to the hazards and corrective measures for each work area and operation. This means employers will have to be very specific as to their different work areas and/or different locations. For example, if an employer has a public facing store front in one location, a warehouse/distribution center in another location and a corporate office in a third location, the employer must address the potential workplace hazards and procedures unique to each location/operation.
