Attorney says workplace violence happens for variety of reasons
khou.com
Posted on September 3, 2010 at 10:11 PM
Updated yesterday at 10:34 PM
HOUSTON—Violence in the workplace may be more common than most people imagine.
Each year an estimated one million people are exposed to some form of workplace violence.
Earlier this week, police shot and killed a man armed with bombs as he held three hostages at the Discovery Communications building near Washington D.C.
Labor attorney Stephen Roppolo said workplace violence happens for a variety of reasons.
"The economy has made people very nervous and wary and desperate," he said. "And the ability to access guns, frankly."
The Houston area has seen its fair share of workplace violence, from the disgruntled NASA engineer who shot and killed a coworker before turning the gun on himself, to employees of a small company off the Beltway who fired back with their own guns when a mentally ill woman shot one of their coworkers with an arrow.
Workplace violence may seem to be on the rise, but in reality the number of murders has steadily declined since the mid 1990s.
However, in Texas murder is the third most common form of workplace fatality. Nationaly, workplace violence is the number two cause of on-the-job deaths among women.
"In many cases, because these are domestic situations that spill over into the workplace," said Roppolo.
Sonio Corrales of the Houston Area Women’s Center said the workplace becomes involved when a person loses control of their victim.
"So they’re going to do whatever it takes to find them. They know where they work," she said.
According to Rippolo, no workplace is completely immune.
"You do what you can, by implementing the right policies, training your supervisors, dealing with employees," he said.
All that can be done, he said, is minimize the risks as best as possible.
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