Workplace Violence
What is workplace violence? It can be a lot of different things. At its core, workplace violence means that an employee was attacked on the job. The violence can be from another employee, a customer, or by a criminal. Depending on the circumstances, your employer or others associated with keeping your workplace safe could be responsible.
Requirements For Employers
As an employer, you must provide your employees with a reasonably safe place to work. Said another way, employers must protect their employees from preventable harm caused by workplace violence. For example, if an employer knows that a specific employee is at risk of attack by another employee, the employer must step in to prevent the attack. Employers can know that a specific employee is a danger to others if they have a history of aggressive tendencies or a violent criminal record.
A common example of preventing workplace violence is employers demanding that employees do not bring guns to the workplace. Unfortunately, too many employers are choosing to ignore when employees are bringing guns to work. For example, if an employee holds another employee at gun point on the job, why is the person that held another at gun point not at least reprimanded? Conduct rewarded is conduct repeated. We all know that. Yet, too many employers are turning to avoid dealing with violent employees because they are usually talented in other areas on the job.
Along with a safe environment, employers must provide their employees with a safe workplace or facility. This means that if you know your employees could be targeted with violence from outside folks, there must be locks and doors installed to protect your employees from being attacked. A common example are the controversial facilities like Planned Parenthood. Regardless of your specific beliefs, the employees that work at this facility are subject to outside threats daily. The owners and employers at these facilities must protect their employees.
The Need For Security
When there is a need for additional security for employees, the employer must hire the protection needed to keep their employees safe. Often times, security cameras, good lighting, and secured areas are enough to keep employees safe at work. However, places that are criminal hubs must provide more security. For example, if a Home Depot is subject to consistent criminal attacks because of laxed security concerns, they must hire security guards to protect the customers AND employees. If an employee at a Home Depot is injured or killed because of a robbery that the employers knew or should have known about, then Home Depot could be responsible for knowing a crime was likely but doing nothing to prevent it.
While security guards are common in big facilities like Walmart and Home Depot, places that are open at night such as bars and late-night restaurants will want to hire off-duty police officers to protect the employees and customers. Off-duty police officers hired to provide security at criminal hot spots are better than security guards because they have quicker access to calling for back-up. Also, officers are specifically trained on how to anticipate crime and prevent it from ever getting to an escalated point. This skill is instrumental in helping detect criminal actions and prevent them from ever harming employees and customers.
Seriously Injured Or Killed - No Workers Compensation
In Texas, there are employers that do NOT subscribe to workers compensation insurance. At these places, the employers are subject to individual lawsuits by employees that are injured on the job. These are called "Non-Subscriber" cases, which means that an employee must be able to prove that an employer could have prevented the injury. If that is met, then the employer is responsible for the medical bills, lost wages, and change in quality of life. This is an extremely powerful tool that employees have in cases where they have been injured on the job because it allows them to be made whole or as close to it as possible.
Employers that do not carry workers compensation insurance are essentially leaving their employees out for themselves. The employers are telling the employees come work for me with all you got, but if you are hurt, you are on your own. Then, if you cannot work, I'm going to have to fire you because you cannot perform your job.
If you or a loved one was seriously injured on the job or killed, reach out to us. We represent employees in workplace injuries all throughout Texas. Specifically, we see a lot of these cases in Dallas, Midland/Odessa, Pecas, Marshall, and Houston. There are many other counties we work in throughout Texas, but the vast majority of these cases happen to employees that have never done anything wrong in their lives. Now, they are left not knowing what to do.
Once you are prepared to reach out, you can give us a call or fill out our contact form. We also have our emails on the website. We are here for you and want to help get you back on your feet to provide for your family. If you need more free information, continue searching throughout the website and you can also order my free book called The Essential Guide For Your Texas Injury Case.
