Manitoba Violence Prevention Training

Violence prevention for Manitoba employers

Manitoba employers have a responsibility to provide a workplace free of violence as part of their requirements in Bill 219 which took effect January 1, 2011.

There are four main requirements for Employers to meet.

• Ensure, as far as is reasonably practical, that a worker is not exposed to workplace-related violence
• Prepare a Workplace Violence Prevention Policy respecting work-place violence
• Review the policies at least once per year, or more frequently as the employer considers necessary
• Implement policies for dealing with and preventing incidents of workplace-related violence

Assessing risk of workplace violence
An employer must:

• Assess the risk of workplace violence that may arise due to the nature of the workplace, the type of work or the conditions of work
• Advise the workers at the workplace of the results of the assessment
• If the assessment is in writing, provide copies on request or advise the workers how to obtain copies

Reassessment
An employer must re-assess the risk of workplace violence as often as is necessary to ensure that it continues to protect employees as the risk of violence changes.

Preparing a Violence Prevention Policy
There are resources available on the Manitoba government website to assist you in preparing a Violence Prevention Policy if you do not already have one. If you already have a policy it is a good idea to compare it to the samples available to ensure you have covered key points such as defining what is meant by Violent Behaviour. The link to this website is at the end of this article.

Implementing a Violence Prevention Policy
Once you have developed a policy for your organization the next step is to implement the policy. This step typically involves ensuring the policy is posted and every person in the organization is aware of the existence of the policy.

This would include providing details on what to do in the event you are involved in an incident, complaints or threats of violence. In some cases you may have a form for people to submit an incident, complaint or threat of violent behaviour and it would be clear for all employees how this process works for reporting an incident, complaint or threat as well as the procedure for resolving an incident, complaint or threat once reported.

Informing and Educating Workers on Violence Prevention
With a written policy in place, and a clear process documented, you can now take the step of educating employees on the details of the policy to ensure an understanding of what work-place violence is and what it is not, what to do in the event they are involved in an incident of violence.

Ideally this step is more than just a one time action as the more frequently we are exposed to information and ideas the greater impact they have on our thoughts and long term behaviour.

For more information on Manitoba Violence Prevention contact:
info@SafeAndCertified.com

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