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Workplace Violence Protection Program

What is Workplace Violence?

Any physical assault or acts of aggressive behavior occurring where a public employee performs any work-related duty in the course of their 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;
  • 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.
     

What is the New York State Workplace Violence Prevention Law and Regulation?

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.

Purpose of this Program

The purpose of this Workplace Violence Prevention Program is to provide information to managers, 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/BOCES commitment to work with employees to maintain a work environment free from violence and other disruptive behavior to the greatest degree possible.

Policy Statement

A policy statement which indicates the District workplace violence prevention policy, goals and objectives; incident alert and notification policies, and provides for full employee participation through an authorized employee representative has been developed, implemented and posted where notices to employees are normally posted. The policy statement is included in Appendix 1.