New Item: Nurses at Wichita hospital vote to authorize strike – – CBS19 News

According to the release, top contract issues include workplace violence prevention, safe staffing, and nursing staff recruitment and retention. Nurses said they believe a strong contract is the way to make progress on the issues.

“This is about better health care for every single person in Wichita,” said Lisa Watson, registered nurse in the medical intensive care unit. “As nurses, we see what’s going wrong in our hospital every day. As a union, we’re demanding management hear us out about our solutions to those problems and start taking action to make things go right.”

Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: Nurses at Wichita hospital vote to authorize strike – WFXG

According to the release, top contract issues include workplace violence prevention, safe staffing, and nursing staff recruitment and retention. Nurses said they believe a strong contract is the way to make progress on the issues.

“This is about better health care for every single person in Wichita,” said Lisa Watson, registered nurse in the medical intensive care unit. “As nurses, we see what’s going wrong in our hospital every day. As a union, we’re demanding management hear us out about our solutions to those problems and start taking action to make things go right.”

Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: How San Jose lawmaker’s bill could curb workplace violence – San … – San José Spotlight

Manuel Huizar, a 24-year-old San Jose Safeway employee, was fatally shot by shoplifters last year. In April, Home Depot employee Blake Mohs, 26, was shot and killed while attempting to stop a robbery in Pleasanton. In May 2021, nine people were fatally shot by a transit worker at San Jose’s VTA rail yard. It was the deadliest mass shooting in the South Bay.

As workplace violence has escalated, one California legislator wants to ensure workers are better protected and trained to handle these situations.

State Sen. Dave Cortese authored Senate Bill 553 to establish workplace violence prevention standards. It prohibits employers from forcing workers to confront shoplifters and requires employers to provide shooter training and shoplifter training to prevent workplace assaults. The bill passed the state Senate on Wednesday and is headed to the Assembly.

“You can’t require rank and file employees, like a courtesy clerk in a grocery store, a bagger, a produce manager, to also be responsible for security and tackle people that are shoplifting,” Cortese told San José Spotlight. “That’s not all right and that’s getting people killed.”

SB 553 also calls for a wellness referral system. If a colleague appears to be acting erratic or making threats, and a worker informs an employer of this behavior, the employer should refer that person to a wellness center, Cortese said.

John Courtney, president of ATU Local 285, VTA’s largest union, said Santa Clara County didn’t have the resources in place it does now. After the mass shooting, a bill co-authored by Cortese and Assemblymember Ash Kalra was passed to provide $10 million for VTA worker support, including mental health services, employee training and trauma counseling.

“The resiliency center, it definitely gives you another place where you can go to… for whatever reason, including (if someone’s) on the brink of committing a horrific crime,” he told San José Spotlight. “Hopefully, it will be a mandatory thing employers in the public sector will have to implement.”

Courtney said VTA’s report on the shooting incorrectly stated nobody could have predicted what happened, but more should’ve been done.

“There were some things that we certainly know that the employer knew about in regards to the individual,” he told San José Spotlight. “There were warning signs.”

Cortese wants the bill to require employers to make wellness center referrals as needed in California due to the epidemic of behavioral health crises.

“When somebody’s triggered and has a mental health issue, especially if it’s a significant one, the most important thing we can do for everybody, including that individual… is give them help right away,” he said. “That’s how we can turn the tide on both violence and significant outbreaks of mental health issues that we’re seeing.”

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) cites workplace violence as the second leading cause of fatal occupational injury. The agency estimates that workplace violence affects nearly 2 million workers annually.

“All businesses public or private sector have to have a violence prevention plan,” Cortese said. “We want logs of any violence that occurs during the course of the year, and we want those logs reviewed annually.”

Cortese said the California Chamber of Commerce objected to additional costs that might be needed for security personnel and wanted to wait for OSHA to update its 2017 workforce requirements. Cortese said OSHA’s standards only applied to the health care industry and he doesn’t want to delay while the agency is working on standards for other industries. The chamber also asked if small businesses would have to comply. Cortese said some exemptions will be forthcoming.

“Every day that goes by, we seem to see more workplace violence,” he said. “As a legislature, we have the power to do this right now.”

Contact Lorraine Gabbert at [email protected]

Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: California’s Workplace Violence Bill Passes State Senate and … – JD Supra

On May 31, 2023, the California Senate passed Senate Bill (SB) No. 553 by a vote of 29–8. The legislation would establish new workplace violence prevention standards in California.

Quick Hits

  • The California Senate passed SB 553, a bill that would establish new workplace violence prevention standards in California.
  • SB 553 would require every California employer with at least one employee to “establish, implement, and maintain … a workplace violence prevention plan” and “record information in a violent incident log about every incident, postincident response, and workplace violence injury investigation.”
  • SB 553 would, among other things, prohibit employers from “maintaining policies that require employees to confront active shooters or suspected shoplifters.”
  • SB 553 would authorize labor unions to seek temporary restraining orders (TROs) on behalf of employees based on workplace violence or credible threats of violence.
  • If approved by the California State Assembly and signed into law by the governor, the measure would take effect on January 1, 2024, and add Section 6401.9 to the California Labor Code.

State Senator Dave Cortese (D-15) gave an impassioned introduction to the legislation that he had sponsored, and he referenced shootings across the country during the recent Memorial Day weekend. Senator Cortese claimed that the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) has had its own standard in the planning stages for six years and asserted that the legislation would expedite worker protections. He noted that the proposed provisions in the legislation should not be applied to all California businesses, small or large, but he did not further explain this issue.

During the session, Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-38) expressed her support for SB 553, but she also voiced concerns about the legislation’s potential effect on small businesses and businesses with low numbers of employees. Senator Susan Rubio (D-22) expressed her support for the bill, though she shared her concerns about the bill’s taking a “one-size-fits-all approach” and specifically asked Senator Cortese to consider her concerns. Senator Shannon Grove (R-12) expressed her deep concern that the bill was redundant and overstepped Cal/OSHA’s work to develop general industry workplace violence prevention standards. Senator Richard Roth (D-31) lamented how long Cal/OSHA takes to draft and implement regulations. The bill now moves to the California State Assembly for committee hearings. Labor and Judiciary Committee hearings could begin in mid-June.

As currently drafted, SB 553 authorizes labor unions to seek temporary restraining orders (TROs) based on workplace violence or a credible threat of violence. The bill also requires a workplace violence prevention plan containing detailed written procedures and processes similar in scope to those of healthcare facilities and psychiatric hospitals, as well as “engineering controls” (such as “electronic access controls to employee-occupied areas, installed or handheld weapons detectors … and personal alarm devices”) and “work practice controls” (“such as security guards, employee training on workplace violence prevention methods, and employee training on procedures to follow in the event of a workplace violence incident.” The legislation also requires shoplifter training and active shooter training, and it specifically prohibits employers from “maintaining policies that require employees to confront active shooters or suspected shoplifters.”

According to California Chamber of Commerce Policy Advocate Rob Moutri, “California’s employers—both public and private—should be very concerned about SB 553 because it requires all employers to meet workplace violence standards that exceed even those applied to hospitals under present regulations. Cal/OSHA staff specifically rejected using the hospital standard for all industries, and have spent years working on a general industry draft that makes sense for all of California’s workplaces. Sadly, SB 553 ignored those years of work and applies the hospital standard—with a few additional provisions—to even the smallest employer in the state.”

Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: Lawmakers in CT expand workers’ compensation for workplace … – Chron

HARTFORD — The House of Representatives on Thursday put the finishing touches on Senate bills that would open Workers’ Compensation benefits to people who suffer trauma from violence they witness at work; require young drivers to receive education about the use of cannabis; and make sure that public colleges and universities have overall plans for reproductive and maternal care.

Workers throughout the state who suffer from post traumatic stress after witnessing a death or catastrophic injury while on the job would be eligible for up to 52 weeks of worker’s compensation benefits, under legislation that was approved in a 104-44 vote. and sends the bill to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for final review.

If signed into law, starting January 1, 2024, workers would have a year after such violent events to apply for the benefits, which are currently limited to police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and emergency 9-1-1 dispatchers. Applicants would have to be diagnosed by qualified mental health professionals as suffering from the “direct result” of such traumatic events.

“Folks who have witnessed death, disfigurement of a victim, suffered from a traumatic stress injury as a result, will be covered by this bill,” said Rep. Manny Sanchez, D-New Britain, co-chairman of the legislative Labor Committee, who introduced the bill, which led to a 100-minute debate. “While it happens rarely, it does have serious effects on those who experience it.” 

But Republicans led by veteran Rep. Tim Ackert of Coventry and Rep. Christie Carpino of Cromwell, warned of the potential cost, particularly to towns and cities that self-insure for Workers’ Compensation claims. While he supports the expansion in general, he could not support the bill.

“If it was maybe a little tighter, but sometimes when we do legislation like this we make it even more broad, that it doesn’t have to just be an incident like this,” Ackert said. “It could be workplace violence or something along that line that you see. I believe that it may make us more uncompetitive than we were.”

Carpino focused on the potential number of claims, which Sanchez could not estimate. 

“So if the workers’ compensation rates for these types of claims increase, am I correct to speculate that the rates paid by the employers would increase?” Carpino asked. “I do not know,” Sanchez replied.

“We don’t know how many people this is going to impact,” Carpino said. “We couldn’t even get answers to very basic questions with less than a week left in the session and we started in January.” The session ends at midnight on June 7.

But Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, a member of the Public Health Committee, expected that such claims will be few. “The worry that it’s going to be everybody, should bother us least in Connecticut,” he said, recalling how for years after the 2012 school murders in Newtown, police were turned down for PTSD benefits under Workers’ Compensation, before the legislature finally approved them. “We are 10 years after Newtown,” Tercyak said. “It was horrible what people went through and survived because of what they saw. We shouldn’t be too worried about the theoretical and should we get swamped.”

Under a wide-ranging Department of Motor Vehicles bill, which passed 147-0, adults and youths seeking their first driver’s licenses would have to take eight-hour courses that include four hours on the effects of alcohol and drugs including cannabis and its effects on reaction time, perception, and peripheral vision.

State colleges and universities would be required to develop plans to provide reproductive health care services, including educational materials about pregnancy, under legislation that passed the House in a 114-34 vote. State Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, a member of the Higher Education & Employment Committee, said that the plans would include educational information on maternal mental care and resources for mental health care screening. It also heads to Lamont’s desk for final review. 

“The plan shall include but need not be limited to the availability of equipment and licensed health care providers,” Farrar said, adding that telehealth counseling would be included, along with the continuity of care during holiday and vacation periods.

The bill is companion legislation for recent House action on a proposal to allow Plan B emergency contraceptives to be sold in vending machines on college campuses. That legislation awaits action in the Senate.  

Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: LETTER: ETFO members report violence is on the rise in Ontario’s … – The Sarnia Journal

Dear Editor:

Violence is a pervasive problem in Ontario’s public elementary schools. In a recent survey, with almost 25,000 members of the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario (ETFO) responding, 77 per cent said they had personally experienced violence or had witnessed violence against another staff member.

Students don’t come to school to have a hard day and certainly not to engage in violence. This problem is a symptom of the long-term under-funding of Ontario’s public education system, which has accelerated under the Ford government.

ETFO members aren’t just teachers and education workers in our schools. They are our neighbours and our friends. Too many of them are being injured or made ill by workplace violence. And too many students are struggling without the supports they need.

Lambton Kent ETFO calls on the Lambton Kent DSB to join us in advocating to the Ministry of Education and the provincial government to address the issue of violence in Ontario’s elementary schools, first and foremost by providing appropriate funding for the resources, supports, and staffing that are needed to support students who are struggling.

Tracie Booth

President, Lambton Kent Elementary Teachers’ Federation Of Ontario

Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: Failed legislation would have defended the defenceless from abuse … – St. Catharines Standard

Niagara Centre MPP Jeff Burch called it “disturbing” that the provincial government shot down legislation that would have allowed municipalities to essentially fire city council for bad behaviour.

Despite previously supporting the private members bill by Liberal MPP Stephen Blais from Orléans, Progressive Conservative MPPs voted against Bill 5 — the Stopping Harassment and Abuse by Local Leaders Act — when it was up for second reading, Wednesday.

The legislation would have authorized municipalities and boards to request court orders to declare a member’s seat vacant if they violate workplace violence or harassment policies. It would have also prevented violators from seeking immediate subsequent re-election, or reappointment to council or local boards.

Burch, the NDP’s municipal affairs critic, said PC members voted in favour of the same bill last term during its first reading, but opted to vote against during second reading this week.

“That was disturbing. What seemed to be happening was because it was not a conservative member’s motion, they decided not to pass it,” he said.

Welland city councillors also passed a motion urging support for Bill 5, after considering a city report on the legislation two weeks ago.

Ward 2 Coun. Leo VanVliet who brought forward the motion of support said he too was disappointed “but not overly surprised, because it was a private member’s bill.”

VanVliet said the legislation “would have been a defence for people who really can’t always defend themselves.”

“Quite frankly I don’t think Bill 5 would have done much for me because I can defend myself, but there are a lot of people out there who are being used and abused and they don’t have the wherewithal to defend themselves. This bill would have defended them.”

Although Welland has been dealing with repeated integrity commissioner reports, VanVliet said the legislation “would not have made a great deal of difference as far as the incidents that are happening at the city.”

“As far as I’m concerned, what’s happening at the city isn’t severe enough,” he said, adding he’s far more concerned about incidents in other communities.

In some cases, he said elected officials are “telling their secretaries to wear sexier clothing or go bra-less, you know that’s something totally uncalled for.”

Burch said he participated in consultation meetings regarding Bill 5 prior to last year’s election, working with Blais, the Liberal party’s municipal affairs and housing critic; Minister of Municipal Affairs Steve Clarke as well as Green Party leader Mike Schreiner.

He said the meetings were held in the expectation that the legislation would be approved, “but nothing happened. There were crickets.”

“The province decided not to do anything at all,” he said. “This bill has come forward for the second time, the exact same bill. It was passed unanimously in the Legislature previously.”

But Wednesday, he said “all the Conservatives voted against it — all the other parties spoke in favour of, spoke about the need for it.”

He said two women from Ottawa who experienced the impact of dealing with harassment from political leaders were in the gallery at Queen’s Park for the meeting.

“They were there in the hope that something would finally be passed, and the Conservatives just decided to all vote against it.”

Burch spoke in support of the legislation, prior to the vote taking place.

“We’re strongly in favour of efforts to strengthen workplace violence and harassment policies, especially when it comes to councillors, local leaders, and those in positions of power,” he said at Queen’s Park.

“We’ve seen time and again in this province councillors get away with absolutely disgusting and egregious behaviour from Ottawa, West Lincoln, Mississauga, Brampton and the list goes on and on. When councillors who commit such acts are not held to account, it denies justice for those who’ve been harassed and creates an environment that prevents others from coming forward.”

He said without that legislation, local leaders can operate by “a different set of rules when they should be held to a much higher standard.”

Burch said when councillors who have harassed municipal staff or their fellow councillors “can retain their positions, no matter how serious, it creates and protects toxic workplaces; which in turn has an adverse effect on mental health in the workplace and throughout the community.”

While Burch suspects the Progressive Conservatives may come forward with their own version of similar legislation, “but I’m not holding my breath.”

“They’ve been talking about it, but they haven’t done anything,” he said. “They don’t seem to take the issue seriously.”

VanVliet also hopes similar legislation will ultimately be enacted.

“I’m almost sure that someone else, sooner or later, will take the ball and run with it,” he said.

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Source: Ross Arrowsmith

New Item: Lawmakers in CT expand workers’ compensation for workplace … – Greenwich Time

HARTFORD — The House of Representatives on Thursday put the finishing touches on Senate bills that would open Workers’ Compensation benefits to people who suffer trauma from violence they witness at work; require young drivers to receive education about the use of cannabis; and make sure that public colleges and universities have overall plans for reproductive and maternal care.

Workers throughout the state who suffer from post traumatic stress after witnessing a death or catastrophic injury while on the job would be eligible for up to 52 weeks of worker’s compensation benefits, under legislation that was approved in a 104-44 vote. and sends the bill to Gov. Ned Lamont’s desk for final review.

If signed into law, starting January 1, 2024, workers would have a year after such violent events to apply for the benefits, which are currently limited to police, firefighters, emergency medical personnel, and emergency 9-1-1 dispatchers. Applicants would have to be diagnosed by qualified mental health professionals as suffering from the “direct result” of such traumatic events.

“Folks who have witnessed death, disfigurement of a victim, suffered from a traumatic stress injury as a result, will be covered by this bill,” said Rep. Manny Sanchez, D-New Britain, co-chairman of the legislative Labor Committee, who introduced the bill, which led to a 100-minute debate. “While it happens rarely, it does have serious effects on those who experience it.” 

But Republicans led by veteran Rep. Tim Ackert of Coventry and Rep. Christie Carpino of Cromwell, warned of the potential cost, particularly to towns and cities that self-insure for Workers’ Compensation claims. While he supports the expansion in general, he could not support the bill.

“If it was maybe a little tighter, but sometimes when we do legislation like this we make it even more broad, that it doesn’t have to just be an incident like this,” Ackert said. “It could be workplace violence or something along that line that you see. I believe that it may make us more uncompetitive than we were.”

Carpino focused on the potential number of claims, which Sanchez could not estimate. 

“So if the workers’ compensation rates for these types of claims increase, am I correct to speculate that the rates paid by the employers would increase?” Carpino asked. “I do not know,” Sanchez replied.

“We don’t know how many people this is going to impact,” Carpino said. “We couldn’t even get answers to very basic questions with less than a week left in the session and we started in January.” The session ends at midnight on June 7.

But Peter Tercyak, D-New Britain, a member of the Public Health Committee, expected that such claims will be few. “The worry that it’s going to be everybody, should bother us least in Connecticut,” he said, recalling how for years after the 2012 school murders in Newtown, police were turned down for PTSD benefits under Workers’ Compensation, before the legislature finally approved them. “We are 10 years after Newtown,” Tercyak said. “It was horrible what people went through and survived because of what they saw. We shouldn’t be too worried about the theoretical and should we get swamped.”

Under a wide-ranging Department of Motor Vehicles bill, which passed 147-0, adults and youths seeking their first driver’s licenses would have to take eight-hour courses that include four hours on the effects of alcohol and drugs including cannabis and its effects on reaction time, perception, and peripheral vision.

State colleges and universities would be required to develop plans to provide reproductive health care services, including educational materials about pregnancy, under legislation that passed the House in a 114-34 vote. State Rep. Kate Farrar, D-West Hartford, a member of the Higher Education & Employment Committee, said that the plans would include educational information on maternal mental care and resources for mental health care screening. It also heads to Lamont’s desk for final review. 

“The plan shall include but need not be limited to the availability of equipment and licensed health care providers,” Farrar said, adding that telehealth counseling would be included, along with the continuity of care during holiday and vacation periods.

The bill is companion legislation for recent House action on a proposal to allow Plan B emergency contraceptives to be sold in vending machines on college campuses. That legislation awaits action in the Senate.  

Source: Ross Arrowsmith