Workplace Violence Prevention for California Building Contractors

The construction and home improvement industries put a roof over our head. Commercial contractors give our businesses, schools, and government places to work. And the physical infrastructure we need to get from one place to another.

But, when it comes to workplace violence prevention, employees working in the construction industry face a variety of safety hazards beyond those related to construction. 

The threats can come from job site trespassers, who may try to steal materials or equipment from the job site, and from people that live near the job site angry at the noise and inconvenience that come with construction (Type 1 violence).

And, while this is less likely in the commercial construction realm, home improvement contractors have the second highest level of complaints by industry according to the 2022 Consumer Complaint Survey Report. Things like cost overruns, damage to property, poor communication and interpersonal relations, can lead to an angry client, especially one feeling financial pressure, crossing over the line into threats or even violence. (Type 2 violence).

Having worked on many job sites when I was young, including as a temp in Local 3, the IBEW in New York, and as a carpenter, there was always job site banter, and occasionally that ribbing got out of control and led to fights. And, there were times when a supervisor untrained in how to get the most work from a crew member took actions that seem abusive and bullying. Sexual harassment on the job site can occur just as it does in any other industry. (Type 3 co-worker violence).

While family members of employees can still have incidents on the job site (Type 4 violence) it’s more likely to occur over financial issues among family members than stalking or domestic violence that are more likely to occur in industries with higher percentages of female employment.

In this piece, I discuss what building contractors need to focus on when developing an effective workplace violence prevention plan and program as required under California’s new workplace violence prevention law.

I learned first hand about the devastating effects of violence, how it occurs, and how it can be prevented, through 30 years of conducting civil and criminal litigations investigations into violent incidents on behalf of attorneys, and while conducting internal fact-finding investigations for employers regarding workplace violence, threats, and harassment.

California’s new workplace violence prevention law goes into effect on July 1. It covers the vast majority of employers, employees, and workplaces. My free California workplace violence prevention checklist can help you get started on your prevention plan. Download it here. 

Assessing Safety Hazards

Developing and implementing a violence prevention plan starts with determining the workplace violence safety hazards that are specific to your employees. These assessments should be made relative to the safety threats they face from the four source types of workplace violence.

Each workplace violence source type brings its own unique safety threats and requires different approaches to identifying and remediating those specific safety threats. Here’s where to begin:

•  Start by surveying, or interviewing, employees about their safety concerns, incidents they’ve experienced or witnessed, including near misses—situations that didn’t progress to a violent incident, but could have—and what changes they think will lessen the risk to those threats.
•  Assess the physical premises of the job site, interior and exterior, parking areas, and walkways for lighting, ingress and egress, hiding places, and other factors that can increase safety risks. One of the challenges in making this type of assessment is that you may have limited input into layout, lighting and other safety factors. And in some circumstances, where your employees are working in someone’s home, you may have no input at all, including on who is in the house while your crews are working.
•  Develop an approach to remediate the identified safety hazards created by the environment and the people within it.

Strategies to Avoid Physical Harm from Workplace Violence 

 Once hazards are identified, you’ll need to assess any current education and training approaches you take to help employees avoid physical harm from workplace violence and how they relate to the safety hazards your employees face. And then determine the strategies you’ll need to implement in order to educate and train your employees on how to avoid physical harm from those workplace violence safety hazards. Some strategies to consider include:

•  Communication approaches to convey the existence of safety threats.
•  Situational awareness and de-escalation training.
•  The buddy system.
•  Personal safety and self-defense skills.
•  Incident response team members.
•  Parking area safety. 

Workplace Violence Complaint and Investigation Systems

Review your current workplace violence complaint and investigation process to ensure that it can address each of the four source types of workplace violence. Some questions to ask about your process include:

•  Do your employees know exactly who violence complaints should be brought to? This can be especially challenging on the job site since incidents can occur between crew members working for different contractors.
•  Are complaints brought forward in writing with clear instructions?
•  Are there contingencies in the complaint and investigation process should the alleged incident involve a manager or other person of authority?
•  Is there a clearly defined and standardized investigation process? Employers will have to decide who, related to the project, is best positioned to conduct these investigations. This decision may depend upon who is involved in the incident.
•  Is the person responsible for investigations trained in conducting investigations?
•  Do you have a standardized approach to reporting on the investigation, its findings, and recommendations to ensure that decision makers are fully informed?

Workplace Violence Incident Log

Do you maintain a workplace violence incident log where the relevant information regarding any incident that occurs is documented? If not, you’ll need to create one. Here’s some of the basic information you’ll want to include in the incident log:

•  The circumstances surrounding the incident, including the time of the incident, the number of employees present, and identify the relationship of the source for the violence to the restaurant.
•  The factors that led to the incident.
•  Details regarding the incident itself.
•  Who was notified.
•  The response to the incident, and who was involved in that response.
•  The results of any investigation.
•  The resulting outcome of the investigation and response to the incident.
•  Do not include medical information, or information that identifies specific individuals to protect the privacy rights of those involved beyond.

Training and Implementation

 You’ll also need to develop a training program that trains employees in the workplace violence prevention plan, their responsibilities, and roles, as well as in safety approaches to help keep them safe from violence.  There may be many subcontractors with crews on a job site, so contractors will need to make a determination as to who is responsible for certain types of training, and to ensure that required violence prevention actions are implemented on site. Employee training should include:

•  Recognizing workplace violence hazards specific to their jobs.
•  Effective procedures to respond to actual or potential workplace violence emergencies.
•  Effective means to alert employees about workplace violence emergencies.
•  Evacuation and sheltering plans.
•  How to obtain help from staff assigned to respond to workplace violence incidents.
•  How to seek assistance to prevent or respond to violence.
•  Strategies to avoid physical harm from violence. This training is critical for employee safety. Because it ensures employees are protected from harm even when other practices fail.

And you’ll need to develop an implementation process to ensure that all of the different required actions are completed. Areas to implement include:

•  Active employee involvement in the workplace violence prevention process.
•  Employee surveys and interviews to identify workplace violence safety hazards.
•  Workplace violence safety hazard inspections and corrections.
•  Complaint and investigation process.
•  Preventing retaliation and ensuring accountability throughout all processes.
•  Workplace violence incident log.

Have questions about your workplace violence prevention program, send me an email. We can discuss where you are at in developing your program and what approaches you can take to ensure you get an effective workplace violence prevention program up and running.