District Council 37, the city's largest public employee union, today testified at a New York State Hazard Abatement Board hearing on the need for a Public Employee Safety and Health Workplace Violence Standard to protect city and state workers assaulted on the job. Members who have been assaulted on the job, along with DC 37 local presidents representing workers in city social services, schools, public health and hospitals, juvenile justice facilities, parking enforcement, and parks, also testified in support of the protective standard.

Lillian Roberts, executive director of DC 37 and a former New York State Commissioner of Labor, said, "Every year, DC 37 members and other city and state employees are seriously injured in work-related violence at their jobs. Yet there is no safety standard to protect them. City and state workers need a safety and health standard to protect them from workplace violence the way other standards protect them against chemical hazards and unsafe working conditions.

"The New York State Hazard Abatement Board and the New York State Department of Labor should not pass up this opportunity to provide badly needed protections for public sector workers who are at risk of being assaulted in the course of their workday.

"Workplace violence is a legitimate safety and health issue. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has concluded that workplace violence is a 'substantial contributor to death and injury on the job.'

"Because homicide is the number-two cause of occupational death, DC 37 has no doubt that a workplace violence standard will go a long way towards reducing and/or eliminating the risk of our members—and other public employees—being assaulted at work. We strongly urge that such a standard be put in place immediately."

In addition to testifying at the hearing, DC 37 is lobbying the NY City Council to pass a resolution in support of a workplace violence standard for city and state workers.