Domestic Violence in the Workplace

Stop the Hurting is a Employment and Workplace Action Plan and Policy Advocacy Project designed to address domestic violence within the Los Angeles County area.

  8 Reasons Employers Should Address Domestic Violence

  • Domestic Violence Affects Many Employers
  • Domestic Violence is a Security and Liability Concern
  • Domestic Violence is a Performance and Productivity Concern
  • Domestic Violence is a Health Concern
  • Domestic Violence is a Management Issue
  • Taking Action in Response to Domestic Violence in the workplace
  • Employers CAN Make a Difference
  • Employee and Management should know the signs of abuse

 Stop the Hurting will engage business leaders, owners and managers in the intervention and prevention of domestic violence using several approaches:

  • Development and dissemination of model policies for local business to adopt and implement
    addressing issues of domestic violence in the workplace.
  • Train managers, supervisors and individual employees to identify domestic violence.
  • Establish a confidential means for employers to seek resources and referrals for themselves as well as staff.
  • The incorporation of domestic violence intervention and prevention into employee training
    programs.

 The Cost of Domestic Violence

Domestic violence doesn't stay home when its victims go to work. It can follow them, resulting in violence

in the workplace.  Or it can spill over into the workplace when a woman is harassed by threatening phone calls, is absent because of injuries or is less productive because of extreme stress.

A study of domestic violence survivors found that 74 percent of employed battered women
were harassed by their partner while they were at work.ii

  1. Between 1993 and 1999 in the United States, an average of 1.7 million violent victimization per year were committed against persons age twelve or over who were at work or on duty.iii
  2.  Homicide was the second leading cause of death on the job for women in 2000.iv
•The annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence is estimated as $727.8 million,with over 7.9 million paid workdays lost each year.x
  1.   The costs of intimate partner violence exceed $5.8 billion each year, $4.1 billion of which is for  direct medical and mental   health care services, xii much of which is paid for by the employer.

References:

Family Violence Prevention Fund. 1998. The Workplace Guide for Employers, Unions and Advocates. San Francisco,
CA. iii Duhart, Delis T. 2001. “National Crime Victimization Survey: Violence in the Workplace, 1993-1999.” U.S.
Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, DC. Retrieved January 9, 2004

Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries: Table A-6 Fatal occupational injuries by worker characteristics and event or
exposure, 2000. U.S. Dept. of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. Washington, DC. Retrieved January 9, 2004
http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cftb137.txt v Crime Characteristics: Summary Findings. 2001. U.S. Dept. of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics. Washington, DC.
Retrieved January 9, 2004. http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/cvict_c.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/pub-res/ipv_cost/IPVBook-Final-Feb18.pdf
xi Burke, D.F. January, 2000. “When Employees are Vulnerable, Employers are Too.” The National Law Journal.
Retrieved January 9, 2004. http://www.semmes.com/publications.
xii Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States. 2003. Centers for Disease Control and