Workplace Violence and Other Legal Concerns for Employers

¶ … employer was found guilty of a safety violation or financially liable for an incident of workplace violence and briefly summarize the case and explain why you agree to disagree with the outcome!

In the case of Lowe, et al. v. Old Navy, LLC, No. 10 L. 7624, Old Navy was sued by the surviving family members of an employee who was murdered by her boyfriend while working at the Old Navy store (Kreisman 2010). The family members alleged that Old Navy took inadequate steps to protect its employees and the boyfriend had identified himself as a threat the day before the murder took place. "The lawsuit also alleges that the store's security measures were outdated because the boyfriend was able to enter the store through a private employee entrance and then gain access to a restricted employee area, where he allegedly committed the murder-suicide" (Alaniz 2010). While Old Navy's security practices may not have been optimal, holding the store responsible is extremely problematic: even with the most stringent protocols, the murder could have taken place since the man could have entered the store as a customer. Also, the store cannot be held to be responsible for protecting employees from threats which arise from their personal life and identifying outside threats to their safety.

Q2. Locate the workplace violence policy from an organization of your choosing. Briefly summarize it. Is it legally defensible? Is it effective? Why or why not?

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill details the actions employees should take when confronted with outright violence as well as what they should do when confronted by workplace bullying. "The University has developed an Employee Threat Assessment and Response Team (ETART) that will assess and respond to immediate and potential acts of workplace violence" ("Violence in the workplace," 2015). Threats include "intimidation, bullying, stalking, threats, physical attack, property damage, or domestic and family violence" or threatening use of weapons ("Violence in the workplace," 2015). The majority of these prohibited actions would be crimes regardless of the context in which they took place ("Violence in the workplace," 2015). The only workplace-specific definition of a prohibited activity is bullying which is said to be "behavior [that] generally includes an element of vindictiveness, and is intended to undermine, patronize, humiliate, intimidate or demean the recipient" ("Violence in the workplace," 2015). This is the most subjective and also likely to be the most contentious aspect of the definition of violent behavior contained in the policy.