District’s Commitment
Evaluation of Physical Environment
Hierarchy of Controls
Program Review
Prohibited Conduct
Recordkeeping Requirements
Reporting an Incident
Training
What is the NYS Violence Prevention Law?
Work Environment
Workplace Violence Prevention Implementation
Introduction
The safety and security of Scotia-Glenville Central School District’s employees, students, and visitors is very important. Threats, threatening behavior, acts of violence, or any related conduct that disrupts the work of an individual, or the district’s ability to execute its mission, will not be tolerated.
For the purpose of this policy, “workplace” means any location, either permanent or temporary, where an employee or contractor appointed by the district performs any work-related duty. This includes, but is not limited to, the buildings and surrounding perimeters including the parking lots, athletic fields, alternate work locations, and travel to and from work assignments.
For the purpose of this policy, “workplace violence” is defined as any physical assault or act of aggressive behavior occurring where a district employee performs any work-related duty in the course of his or her employment including but not limited to an attempt or threat, whether verbal or physical, to inflict physical injury upon an employee: any intentional display of force which would give an employee reason to fear or expect bodily harm: intentional and wrongful physical contact with a person without his or her consent that entails some injury: or stalking an employee with the intent of causing fear of material harm to the physical safety and health of such employee when such stalking has arisen through and in the course of employment.
Any acts of violence against our employees while any work-related duty is performed will be thoroughly investigated and appropriate action will be taken, including involving law enforcement authorities when warranted. All employees are responsible for helping to create an environment of mutual respect for each other as well as students and visitors, following all policies, procedures, and practices, and for assisting in maintaining a safe and secure work environment.
What is the NYS Violence Prevention Law?
On June 7, 2006, New York State enacted legislation creating a new Section 27-b of State Labor Law that requires every public employer to evaluate the risk of workplace assaults and homicides at its workplace(s) and to develop and implement programs to prevent and minimize the hazard of workplace violence to public employees. In 2009, NYS Department of Labor (DOL) implemented regulations to accompany the Workplace Violence Prevention Law. These regulations can be found at 12 NYCRR 800.6 and are enforced by NYSDOL. Effective January 4, 2024, all public schools & BOCES previously exempted under Section 2801 of the Education Law must comply with 12 NYCRR Part 800.6.
The purpose of this Workplace Violence Prevention Program is to provide information to administrators, directors, supervisors, employees, and authorized employee representatives about preventing and responding to incidents of workplace violence or threats of violence in accordance with the Workplace Violence Prevention Law and Regulation. Authorized Employee Representatives must be included in the physical evaluation of the workplace, the development of the WPV written program, and the annual review of WPV incident reports.
The goal of this program is to reduce the probability of threats or acts of violence in the workplace and to ensure that any incident, complaint, or report of violence is taken seriously and dealt with appropriately and as expeditiously as possible. This program outlines the major components of our effort to meet these goals. At the core of this Workplace Violence Prevention Program is the District’s commitment to work with employees to maintain a work environment free from violence and other disruptive behavior to the greatest degree possible.
Work Environment
The best prevention strategy is to maintain an environment which minimizes negative feelings, such as isolation, resentment, and hostility among employees. Although no workplace can be perceived as perfect by every employee, there are several steps that the district can take to help create a professional, healthy, and caring work environment. These include, but are not necessarily limited to:
- promoting sincere, open, and timely communication among administrators, employees, and union representatives;
- offering opportunities for professional development;
- fostering a family-friendly work environment;
- maintaining mechanisms for complaints and concerns and allowing them to be expressed in a non-judgmental forum that includes timely feedback to the initiator;
- promoting “quality of life” issues such as facilities and job satisfaction; and
- maintaining impartial and consistent discipline for employees who exhibit improper conduct and poor performance.
Prohibited Conduct
Prohibited conduct includes, but is not limited to:
- Injuring another person physically.
- Engaging in behavior that creates a reasonable fear of injury to another person.
- Engaging in behavior that subjects another individual to extreme emotional distress.
- Possessing, brandishing, or using a weapon that is not required by the individual’s position while in the workplace or engaged in district business.
- Intentionally damaging property.
- Threatening to injure an individual or to damage property.
- Committing injurious acts motivated by, or related to, domestic violence or sexual harassment.
- Retaliating against any employee who, in good faith, reports a violation of this policy.
District’s Commitment
The district is committed to preventing workplace violence incidents. Any person who makes threats, exhibits threatening behavior, or engages in violent acts in the workplace, may be removed from the district’s premises pending the outcome of an investigation. Complaints involving workplace violence will not be ignored and will be given the attention they deserve. The district’s safety and health committee along with the designated workplace violence contact person will work toward preventing workplace violence in the following ways.
- Enforcing workplace rules
- Encouraging reporting of all types of workplace violence
- Workplace Violence Prevention Policy Statement.
- Review of workplace violence incident reports at least annually to identify trends in the types of incidents reported, if any, and reviewing the effectiveness of the mitigating actions taken. Review of disciplinary and workers compensation records at least annually to identify patterns, if any, or injuries in particular areas of the workplace or incidents which involve specific operations or specific individuals
- Review at least annually of relevant policies, practices, and procedures that may impact the risk of workplace violence Review at least annually the physical environment in which employees work to assess if workplace violence can be mitigated with engineering controls
Evaluation of Physical Environment
The District will evaluate, on an annual basis,, the physical work environment for factors which may place employees at risk of workplace violence with the participation of authorized employee representatives. Although workplace violence can occur in any work setting, some settings or factors may pose a greater degree of risk. Employment situations or factors that may pose a higher risk for District employees include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Working in public settings;
- Working late night or early morning hours, or when buildings are otherwise unoccupied;
- Exchanging money with the public;
- Working alone or in small numbers;
- Working in a setting with uncontrolled access to the workplace;
- Working with a population which might expose someone to potentially violent persons;
- Having duties that include the delivery of students, or transporting goods to and from school buildings
Risk factors identified during the evaluation and the mitigation efforts are listed in the Appendices.
Incidents of workplace violence must be carefully documented and analyzed in order to make improvements to the WVPP during the required annual review or as necessary.
Hierarchy of Controls
In situations where the hazard cannot be completely eliminated, the district will use the following control measures to reduce the risk to employees:
Engineering Controls to reduce the hazard through substitution or design. An example of an engineering control would be the installation of a physical barrier to protect employees from members of the public (windows, deep counters). Increased lighting, security hardware and video surveillance are other examples. Engineering controls are not always feasible. If engineering controls are not feasible, the district will then consider work practice controls.
Work Practice Controls reduce the hazard by changing organizational policies and procedures. An example of work practice control would require check-in procedures and/or itineraries to account for employees who work alone and are not under the direct supervision of management. If engineering controls and work practice controls are not feasible, the district will then consider providing personal protective equipment to employees.
Personal Protective Equipment will be used as a last resort if other control measures are not feasible. An example of personal protective equipment would be ballistic body armor for law enforcement personnel.
Workplace Violence Prevention Implementation
Prevention of violence in the workplace is the responsibility of the District and all employees have a role to play in keeping the workplace safe from violence. Employees, authorized employee representatives, and supervisors should be familiar with the early warning signs of potential workplace violence and workplace issues that may trigger workplace violence in order to intervene early and reduce the likelihood of workplace violence.
Reporting an Incident
If an employee witnesses or is involved in an incident of violence in which there is an immediate threat to the employee’s safety, or the safety of others, or where a serious injury has occurred, the employee should immediately call 911 to obtain law enforcement and/or medical assistance and immediately notify their immediate supervisor.
Any employee or authorized employee representative who becomes aware of a physical assault, threatening behavior, or verbal abuse in the workplace must immediately provide written notice of the facts and circumstances of the violent incident to a supervisor or the Workplace Violence Prevention Coordinator. If the report was provided to a supervisor, the supervisor must forward the report to the Workplace Violence Prevention Coordinator.
Any reports of workplace violence must be in writing and maintained by the district’s designated workplace violence contact person. Although there are many reasons these reports need to be maintained, one of the main purposes is for review. By allowing redacted documents to be available for review the safety and health committee in conjunction with the workplace violence designated contact person can and will take appropriate action to mitigate workplace violence. The system our district will be using for reporting all workplace violence incidents is located in Appendix 6 (Workplace Violence Incident Report) of this document. Please fill out Appendix 6 and return the page to the School Principal, the workplace violence designated contact person.
If the case is a privacy concern case, a Workplace Violence Incident Report will still be completed. However, before sharing a copy of the Workplace Violence Incident Report with any party other than the Commissioner of Labor, the District will remove the name of the employee who was the victim of the workplace violence and will instead enter “PRIVACY CONCERN CASE” in the space normally used for the employee’s name.
Designated Contact Person: School Principal/Supervisor
Workplace Violence Coordinator (District) Jill Bush- Human Resources
Training
At the time of hire and annually thereafter, all employees will participate in the District’s WVPP training. At a minimum, this training will include information on:
- Overview of requirements from the workplace violence regulations
- Review of other policies in place that may be relevant:
- Risk factors specific to the workplace that were identified in the risk evaluations:
- Privacy Concerns
*Training may be provided with an on-line safety platform.
Recordkeeping Requirements
All incidents of workplace violence must be documented in a Workplace Violence Incident Report. Workplace violence incidents that cause a work-related death or an injury that meets the recording criteria of the PESH log of injuries and illnesses should be recorded on both the PESH log and the Workplace Violence Incident Report. For more information on the PESH log of injuries and illness, refer to the PESH website, https://dol.ny.gov/public-employee-safety-health.
Workplace Violence Incident Reports provide a written description when an incident occurs so that the Workplace Violence Prevention Coordinator, in conjunction with the Workplace Violence Prevention Advisory Committee and/or District administration, can evaluate why the incident occurred and implement an appropriate safeguard or control measure to reduce the risk of those incidents from happening again. The Workplace Violence Incident Report also creates a historical record. The Workplace Violence Incident Reports will be reviewed at least once a year to determine if and how the WVPP should be updated.
Program Review
On an annual basis, the Workplace Violence Prevention Advisory Committee will oversee the process of reviewing and, if necessary, updating the District’s WVPP and District Workplace Violence Prevention Policy Statement. As part of this process, the District will:
1) With the participation of all authorized employee representatives, review the Workplace
Violence Incident Reports from the past year to identity trends in the types of incidents in
the workplace and review the effectiveness of the mitigating actions taken;
2) Work to determine and address the root cause of incidents;
3) Determine if any change need to be made to control measures; and
4) Assess whether the reporting and recordkeeping systems have been effective in collecting all relevant information.
Additionally, the District will conduct an evaluation of the physical environment when facilities are changed and on a regular basis to assess the functionality of equipment.