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As one of the latest books on this subject points out:
“the contemporary profile of violence at work gives due recognition to physical and psychological behaviours, but also incorporates minor acts of violence..(However,) consensus has yet to emerge regarding a general definition of workplace violence..(and) ..no such definition has been agreed upon in the international
arena” (Rogers, K.A. and Chappell, D. (2003) Preventing and Responding to Violence at Work. Geneva. International Labour Office.)
While within this country the HSE defines violence at work as "any incident in which a person is abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their
work," whilst the definition proposed by an expert working
group at the European Commission is now accepted as being more inclusive and in tune with modern thinking
“Incidents in which persons are abused, threatened or assaulted in circumstances relating to their work involving an explicit or implicit challenge to their safety, well-being or
health” (Wynne, R. et al. (1997) : Guidance on the Prevention of Violence at Work. Brussels . European Commission.)
This is the definition used in the recently published NTO National Occupational Standards in Managing Work-related Violence.
Earlier this year the International Labour Organisation drew up a draft code of practice on violence and stress at work in services. This draft code of practice was debated at a meeting of experts held in Geneva during October, 2003.
In this draft Code of Practice, workplace violence is defined as “Any action, incident or behaviour in which a person is assaulted, threatened, harmed, injured or humiliated in the course of, or as a result of, his or her work because of the action of another person”
The trend at both the European and the international level is towards a broad, wide-ranging definition of workplace violence in which psychological harm is treated with the same degree of seriousness as physical harm and in which matters such as harassment and bullying are also taken into account.
The British Crime Survey uses the following definition: "All assaults or threats which occurred while the
victim was working and were perpetrated by members of the public.".
Assaults while working are defined as incidents of common assault, wounding, robbery, and snatch theft which occurred while the victim was working
and in which the offender was a member of the public. Excluded are incidents in which the offender was a colleague or had a domestic relationship with the victim. Threats while working are all incidents of threats or intimidation which occurred while the victim was working, excluding those incidents involving a colleague or someone with whom the victim had a domestic relationship."
Further information:
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