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Workplace Violence
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"STOP" Workplace Violence

08/07/06

This week's Health Show series on Occupational Health on WAMC is on the topic of  Workplace Violence.  Jonathan Rosen, Chair of the Albany Advisory Board and Director of PEF's Occupational Safety and Health Dept was interviewed.

Violence on the job

Since the beginning of the year, we've been running a series on occupational health and safety here on The Health Show. We were recently surprised to learn that workplace violence was a leading cause of injury on the job. Here to talk about this with us is Jonathan Rosen, director of the occupational health and safety department for the New York State Public Employees Federation, a union representing 54,000 professional, scientific, and technical state employees.

Here is the link to the show and the interview.

http://www.healthshow.org/archive/week_2006_07_30.shtml#2052

07/31/06

Pataki also vetoes the Judi Scanlon bill
Last week, the governor also vetoed the Judi Scanlon bill, which was also passed by the Legislature. It has been a one-house bill for the last seven years, passing only in the Assembly until now. The bill would have required the state Office of Mental Health to allow visiting caseworks to go in pairs when seeing a client who has a serious mental illness.

Workplace Violence includes:  verbal threats, sexual harassment, homicide, physical assault and verbal abuse.   PEF has initiated a campaign to educate its members and promote a legislative agenda to STOP Workplace Violence and improve safety. 

 
We all need to join the campaign to STOP Workplace violence.  There are 3 bills that PEF supports and needs us to take action on this important issue.

WORKPLACE VIOLENCE PREVENTION BILL

S6441 Spano / A9691 John

Requires all public employers to evaluate their workplaces to determine the presence of risk factors that may lead to violence in the workplace.  Public employers with more than 20 employees are required to implement a written program to prevent violence in the workplace. This will include a listing of risk factors and methods to reduce these risks.

JUDI SCANLON BILL

S207 Maziarz/ A2570 Hoyt

Directs that an OMH employee who is required to enter the residence of a person with serious mental illness can request to be accompanied by another employee for safety reasons. Requires that OMH provide to all intensive case managers annual training in safety and the prevention of violence and a mobile telephone.  Requires that OMH provide enough staff so that each intensive case manager will have a caseload of no more than 12 patients.

THE WORKPLACE INJURY DISCLOSURE AND ACCOUNTABILITY BILL

S6480 Robach / A9692 John

Amends the Civil Service Law to require that State Department of Civil Service prepare an annual report about injury rates among state employees due to workplace injuries in State agencies and the costs incurred by the State as a result of those injuries.  

 
To Take Action, Please visit:
 
 
Here you can e-mail your governor, state senator and assemblyperson to encourage him to support these bills.

The NYS Public Employees Federation launched a statewide campaign entitled, “Stop Workplace Violence” in August 2005. Getting punched, kicked, or otherwise abused is NOT part of the job! Thousands of our members work with society’s most dangerous populations in hazardous conditions in state institutions and social service agencies. Chronic short staffing, mandatory overtime, and stress put our members and their clients at risk. It is time to educate, agitate, and mobilize to improve safety! The goals of the campaign are:

  1. Mobilize for worksite and agency based violence prevention programs; and

  2. Establish a legislative agenda on workplace violence prevention.

Materials generated from the campaign are listed below. Stay tuned for information on mobilization/ training that will be conducted statewide beginning in January 2006.

Stop Workplace Violence Campaign Memo

Stop Workplace Violence Campaign Flyer  

To read the "Campaign Memo & Flyer", you must have Adobe Reader.  If you do not, please click below to download Adobe Reader for "FREE"

Click here for Adobe Reader

You can read more about this at:
 
 
Take a moment to watch the 7-minute DVD that is posted here.  Click on the DVD to watch the video:

Stop Workplace Violence Campaign Video

 
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