Today’s issue of WorkCompRecap features the announcement from several government agencies of the release of the Indicators of Workplace Violence, 2019 report, which provides findings on fatal and nonfatal crimes that occurred in the workplace or away from work but over work-related issues.
Findings are presented for 13 indicators of workplace violence, using data from five federal data collections. Notable items included that from 1992 to 2019, nearly 18,000 persons were killed at work, on duty, or in violence that was work-related, based on data from BLS’s Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries. Homicides in the workplace peaked at 1,080 in 1994 and dropped to 454 in 2019, a decline of 58%. During a more recent period from 2014 (409 homicides) to 2019, workplace homicides increased 11%. The joint study also stated that about 529,000 nonfatal injuries from workplace violence were treated in hospital emergency departments for the combined 2015-19 period, a rate of 7.1 ED-treated injuries per 10,000 full-time equivalent workers, with physical assaults (hitting, kicking or beating) accounting for 83% of such injuries.