Domestic Violence in the Workplace

Safety Plan Guidelines for the Employer

Safety plans for the workplace are ideally a joint effort involving the employee, the employer, law enforcement, and local domestic violence providers.

As an Employer, here are some precautions you can take:

• Encourage her to save any threatening e-mail or voice-mail messages. These can potentially be used for future legal action, or can serve as evidence that an existing order of protection was violated.

• Make arrangements for the victim to have priority parking near the building.

• Have calls screened, transferring harassing calls to security - or have her name removed from automated phone directories.

• Relocate the victim's workspace to a more secure area or another site.

• Encourage the victim to obtain an order of protection that includes the workplace, and keep a copy on hand at all times. The victim may want to consider providing a copy to the police, her supervisor, security, or human resources.

• Provide a picture of the perpetrator to reception areas and/or security.

• Identify an emergency contact person should the employer be unable to contact the victim.

• Ask security to escort the employee to and from vehicle or public transportation.

• Have employee paychecks delivered to another location.

• Make sure the employee knows about your violence in the workplace policy and how to report any incident. Make certain the employee knows specifics of your policy - does it include threats over the telephone? Non-employees as well as employees? A specific telephone number to call?

Most important, ask the victim what changes could be made to make her feel safer - remember, the victim knows the perpetrator better than anyone else.