We are cross posting this from unionreview.com:
Two separate and horrific incidents of workplace violence took place on Easter Sunday at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center and Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in the Los Angeles area. These incidents speak directly to the need for a comprehensive Cal/OSHA workplace violence prevention standard that covers all healthcare workers in California.
The first attack happened when a man allegedly bypassed the weapons screening area at Olive View-UCLA Medical Center in Sylmar and allegedly stabbed a nurse twenty-two times in her upper body with a knife. She is in critical condition.
Later in the morning, another man walked into Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, grabbed a nurse, and stabbed her in the ear with a pencil. The nurse was treated at the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.
The California Safe Care Standard Campaign is a campaign to get a Cal/OSHA standard on workplace violence prevention to cover all healthcare workers in the state of California –not just acute care nurses, not just public health nurses — everyone. The campaign has been active in educating, mobilizing, and organizing healthcare workers and allies, and in doing so, it hears firsthand of the violence that healthcare workers experience on the job on a daily basis. The violence — physical, sexual, emotional, and verbal — is pandemic, but not all of it “makes” the news. It is not until attacks occur such as the two that happened on Easter that the mainstream media reports about the problem.
While not all workplace violence is preventable, there is clarity about the fact that with engineering and administrative controls in place to address the most common and predictable instances, a comprehensive regulation — which would be enforced by Cal/OSHA — would significantly help to eliminate the hazard.
Regulation v. Legislation
The easiest way to explain the difference between regulation and legislation is that one is very broad and vague (legislation), and the other is very specific and enforced, usually, by a government agency (regulation).
There are merits to each. State legislation is law that is created by statutes that originate from legislative bills which are introduced by either the Senate or the House (in California, the Assembly). Legislative language is usually broad and very abstract and frequently tries to describe the end result of what the legislation should achieve. Where it falls short is that it does not specifically say how this result will be achieved, just that it wants to “get it done.” The process to “getting it done” is, in fact, the regulatory process.
The irony in California is that there is workplace violence prevention legislation that, for some unknown reason, is codified in licensing code. This means that Cal/OSHA — the agency charged with protecting workers in the state from occupational injuries and illness hazards (such as workplace violence) — can’t directly enforce this legislation. There is currently new workplace violence prevention legislation moving through the legislature, but it is not comprehensive, well thought out, or even very scientific in its approach to dealing with the hazard of violence.
Regulations are promulgated by state agencies, such as Cal/OSHA, which are codified in the California Code of Regulations and carry the force of law to the extent that they do not conflict with any statutes or constitutions of either the state or the federal government. Regulations are standards adopted as rules to implement, interpret, and make specific the law enforced or administered by an agency, in this case, Cal/OSHA.
Since California Labor Code Section 142.2 permits people or organizations to propose new or revised standards concerning occupational safety and health, and requires the Cal/OSHA Standards Board to consider these proposals, SEIU Local 121RN and the SEIU Nurse Alliance of California petitioned the Board with the California Safe Care Standard, now referred to and filed with the state as Petition No. 538.
Scope
For those not familiar with the use of the word “scope” as it applies to labor contracts, legislation, or regulations, it simply means who is or isn’t covered. When the California Safe Care Standard Campaign submitted Petition No. 538, it cited two incidents from October 2010: a psychiatric technician who was strangled by a patient at Napa State Hospital and a Registered Nurse working at the Contra Costa County jail in Martinez who died as a result of an inmate assault.
Scope is important because while the newly proposed legislation on workplace violence prevention for healthcare workers would definitely cover the two workers who were recently stabbed, it would not have covered the Napa State or Contra Costa nurses. Legislation or regulations that cover one class of healthcare workers but not another (or healthcare workers at some facilities but not others) is simply inadequate.
The mainstream media seems to understand legislation more so than regulation, and that’s okay. Workers — healthcare workers and working people of all trades — know and understand that limited legislation can’t bring about the preventive measures that are needed better than regulations that are specific, comprehensive, and enforceable.
By Richard Negri, Health and Safety Director, SEIU Local 121RN
On March 22, I conducted a workshop at SEIU Nurse Alliance of California’s annual Public Health Nurse Conference, “Providing Quality Care Under Safer Conditions.” The workshop was an overview of the California Safe Care Standard’s campaign to get a Cal/OSHA workplace violence prevention standard for healthcare workers – but more importantly, it was an opportunity for me to hear from public health nurses directly about their experiences with workplace violence and what they need to feel safe at work.
PHNs work in a variety of settings, from community and public health clinics to home care to mental health facilities, to name just a few. They often work alone and unassisted in unknown and unsafe surroundings. Their working conditions – and health and safety issues – are different in some ways from their colleagues who work, for example, in an acute care hospital setting.
After hearing from Registered Nurses Maribel Castillon and Elsa Monroe, we broke into small working groups to talk in depth about workplace violence and the kinds of administrative and engineering controls PHNs need on the job for their safety. Some of those identified include:
It is important that a workplace violence prevention standard for healthcare workers cover all workers in ALL healthcare settings. Healthcare workers deserve safety on the job, wherever their job requires them to be.
If you are a healthcare worker, please leave a comment about what you need to be safe at work. It’s important that we hear your voice. Share your thoughts here and on our Facebook page.
Members of SEIU Local 721 who came out to testify at the Cal/OSHA Standards Board Meeting
By Richard Negri, Health and Safety Director, SEIU Local 121RN
We were in Sacramento on February 20 to speak to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board about our petition for a comprehensive workplace violence prevention standard for healthcare workers.
More than 16 nurses and healthcare workers from SEIU and UNAC/UHCP testified about their experiences with violence at work – a pandemic that affects everyone who works in the healthcare industry. We were also joined by Dorothy Wigmore, Occupational Health Specialist at Worksafe; Dr. Richard Pan, Assemblymember representing Sacramento, Elk Grove, Galt, and Lodi, and Chair of the Assembly Committee on Health; and Kimberly Rosenberger, SEIU California State Council.
Along with the petition itself, we provided the Standards Board with statistical data and scholarly research done about workplace violence in the healthcare industry, the results of the survey we’ve been conducting about workplace violence, signatories to our petition in support of a standard, workers’ stories about violence on the job, and letters of support from unions and organizations dedicated to workers’ rights and health and safety on the job, which include:
• Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
• SEIU California State Council
• Nurse Alliance of SEIU Healthcare
• Public Employees Federation of New York
• American Nurses Association\California
• United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals
• Worksafe
• UCLA Labor and Occupational Safety and Health Program
As we enter into the second phase of our campaign, we must continue to educate, mobilize, and organize ourselves around the issue of workplace violence, as we have done for over a year.
The petition is now referenced with the Cal/OSHA Standards Board as Petition No. 538 and will be sent to Cal/OSHA’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health for evaluation. A decision to either grant or deny our petition will be made by the Standards Board within six months.
As we move forward, we need to keep up the momentum for the campaign. The next meeting of the Standards Board is on Thursday, March 20, 2014, in Oakland, at 10:00 am. If you can attend and speak in support of the petition, please contact me. Between now and then, sign our petition, email the link to your co-workers, family, and friends, and share it on your Facebook page.
Last week, the California Safe Care Standard campaign received a letter of support from Mary Kay Henry, SEIU International President, on behalf of the 2.1 million members of SEIU, the largest healthcare union in the country.
Mary Kay Henry wrote:
“We know that healthcare workers are the most assaulted workers in the nation, accounting for almost sixty percent of violent assaults on the job. We also know that too often SEIU members are told that violence at work is ‘part of the job.’ We believe that a comprehensive standard on workplace violence prevention will help to change this ‘part of the job’ culture our members deal with.”
SEIU Local 121RN and SEIU Nurse Alliance of California will present their petition for a standard to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board at its next meeting in February.
We need all activists on deck to help us get the word out about the campaign. You can help in one or more ways:
