Yale case shines light on workplace violence

Eve Tahmincioglu • Profile • E-mail

The killing of Yale student Annie Le has shined a spotlight on the issue of workplace violence after police arrested a colleague at the lab where she worked and charged him with murder.

“It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime, but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country,” said New Haven, Conn., Police Chief James Lewis said after announcing the arrest of suspect Raymond Clark III.

Police reportedly are considering whether the killing may have stemmed from a workplace dispute between Le and Clark.

Workplace violence is growing and has become epidemic, according to some worker advocates, although work-related killings appear to be on the decline.

There were 16,840 nonfatal workplace assaults or other violent acts in 2007, the most recent year available, up 15.6 percent from 2005, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Women were twice as likely as men to be attacked on the job.

At the same time work-related homicides have fallen 52 percent since 1994 to about 507 last year, according to Diana Peterson, a spokeswoman at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

While homicides are down, many workplace experts believe overall violence has been rising because of the recession.

“Since 2008 there has been a rise in workplace violence due to increasing pressure in the workplace,” said Sara Begley with Reed Smith, a law firm representing employers. “Drastic reductions in force, fewer people to perform same workload, no bonuses, economic downturn, lost 401(k) accounts.”

“While workplace homicides have declined, assault, threats, bullying, cyberbullying and sexual harassment and stalking have increased," she said. "Disgruntled employees who are out of work and have mounting bills often lash out at their employer and feel they have nothing to lose by doing so.”

Many workplace advocates believe the number of workers being assaulted on the job is underreported by the Labor Department, which mainly tracks private sector jobs.

Public employees comprise only 16 percent of the national work force but 33 percent of the assaults, said Jonathan Rosen, director of occupational safety and health for the New York Public Employee Federation. The reason is that public-sector employees often work in places where assaults are more likely such as prisons, hospitals and social service agencies.

He said workplace violence is “epidemic."

He and others point to a 2001 Department of Justice report estimating that on average, 1.7 million violent crimes were committed annually against people in the workplace from 1993 to 1999, including 1.3 million simple assaults, 325,000 aggravated assaults, 36,500 rapes and sexual assaults, 70,000 robberies and 900 homicides. Updated figures are due next year.

Worker advocates believe government officials and employers need to take workplace violence seriously. And the case of the Yale murder sheds light on the issue, said Jean Haertl, director of workplace violence prevention for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

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