Violence at Work
Workplace violence occurs where people in the course of their employment are aggressively verbally abused, threatened or physically assaulted.
In 2009 4.4% of all reported incidents to the HSA were related to violence at work (322 / 7179). The sectors involved are shown below:
Sectors involved in Workplace Violence in 2009| NACE | Total | As a % of violence related reports |
|---|
| Public administration and defence; compulsory social security | 148 | 46.0% |
| Human health and social work activities | 113 | 35.1% |
| Financial and insurance activities | 16 | 5. 0% |
| Other service activities | 14 | 4.3% |
| Transportation and storage | 11 | 3.4% |
The Safety Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005 and the Safety Health and Welfare (General Application) Regulations 2007 require employers to ensure the safety health and welfare of their employees. This includes
Finding out if there is a problem and how serious it is by:
- identifying the hazards
- assessing the risks to health and safety from violence at work and
- putting in place appropriate safeguards
The following publications are available for guidance and download in relation to preventing violence at work.
Violence at Work
Prevention of Violence in Healthcare
In September 2010 the European Social Partners signed guidelines to tackle third party violence and harassment at work. The guidelines were signed by the EU level social partners in the healthcare, education, local and regional government, commerce, and private security sectors.
