Ten years ago today, I wrote about the then-Tenth Anniversary of one of the horrible events that made a lasting impact on Connecticut employers.
I recounted the Connecticut Lottery shootings that happened a decade earlier.
Today, marks 20 years. (The CT Mirror has another perspective here.)
The New York Times report of that event is still chilling in its matter of factness:
Angered about a salary dispute and his failure to win a promotion, a Connecticut Lottery accountant reported promptly to his job this morning, hung up his coat and then methodically stabbed and gunned down four of his bosses, one of whom he chased through a parking lot, before turning the gun on himself.
Since that time, we’ve had other workplace shootings in Connecticut including one even deadlier (Hartford Distributors) and, of course, the massacre in Sandy Hook.
I’m reminded of a post I did early on that was titled: Are there really any lessons to be learned from evil? In it, I suggested the answer was “perhaps” — if only because employers need to keep reviewing their workplace violence policies and keep figuring out ways to spot trouble before it arises.
Just in 2014 alone, there were over 400 workplace homicides nationwide reported to OSHA.
Indeed, it seems the rare case where workplace violence just pops up out of nowhere.
OSHA does have some resources on the subject — but many of them are starting to be dated.
One of the more useful items was a set of guidelines issued in 2015 targeting healthcare and social service workers.
It calls on employers to develop workplace violence prevention programs from five building blocks:
- Management commitment and employee participation;
- Worksite analysis;
- Hazard prevention and control;
- Safety and health training, and
- Recordkeeping and program evaluation.
There are far more details in the report than a blog post could recap but for employers looking to reduce the risk of a workplace shooting at their facility, getting started on your own program is as good a place to start as any.
As we remember the victims of the Connecticut Lottery shooting, may we honor their memories to keep bringing change and safety to our workplaces.
The post Another Anniversary of the Lottery Shootings – Has Anything Changed? appeared first on Connecticut Employment Law Blog.
