Assaults and threats at work

Increasing violence and abuse in the workplace is not merely a perception, it's a fact. Official crime figures show that every year there are more than 1.3 million annual assaults and threats affecting over 600,000 workers in the UK. Further government research also reveals that workplace violence is increasing by around 5% every two years.

General under-reporting of such incidents and 'near miss' situations mean that the true picture is certainly much worse than official statistics show. This is further illustrated by the fact that around a third of employees now rank violence as the single biggest threat to their safety at work.

Companies and other organisations cannot afford to turn their backs on this disturbing trend. The Health & Safety at Work Act 1974 makes it clear that employers are obliged to ensure that any potential risk of violence is eliminated or controlled.

Also, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 place specific requirements on employers to assess the risks to their employees, decide what to do to prevent or control the risks, and develop a clear plan to achieve this. This includes assessing the risk of any reasonably foreseeable violence.

Several companies have been prosecuted for failing to manage the threat of violence. In one highly publicised case a well-known food outlet was fined after it failed to take action to prevent violent racist incidents against staff. A workforce representative said at the time that the case sent a "a clear message to those employers who have been ignoring their responsibilities".

Sadly, it is not only members of the public that can be violent or abusive - other employees are also a threat. According to a survey carried out by recruitment company Pertemps, over half of all workers have been brought to the brink of violence. Workers most often blamed stress, excessive workloads, interruptions or "loud-mouthed colleagues" for their "office rage".

Thankfully there is a great deal that companies and other organisations can do to manage workplace violence. Over the remaining sections of this feature Bill Fox, director of Maybo - consultants in workplace conflict - describes the main issues.

These include the case for managing workplace violence, assessing the risks and dealing with the aftermath of an incident…

Feature article by Jonathan Thomson