Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Chair, my amendment No. 1 requires employers covered by the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act to make their organization's workplace violence prevention plans available to their employees through email and other methods.

Before I proceed, I want to thank Mr. Courtney for bringing this matter to our attention. What I didn't say to Mr. Courtney before now is that, 27 years ago, I came to this institution as a Member of the House of Representatives. Either the second or third measure that I proposed dealt with workplace violence, and it is this long that we are finally addressing this in a meaningful way.

This is a short and simple amendment that will help employees covered under the legislation stay familiar and comfortable with their organization's plans for preventing workplace violence.

H.R. 1309 requires the Department of Labor to promulgate an occupational safety and health standard for certain employers in the healthcare and social service sectors.

The standard requires them to develop and implement comprehensive plans for protecting their employees from workplace violence. These plans are specifically tailored to workplaces and their employees on a case-by-case basis and are important tools for identifying and mitigating risks.

As a part of the requirements for these plans, H.R. 1309 requires employers to provide comprehensive training on these plans to employees and to make their workplace violence prevention plans available to their employees at all times.

My amendment, which is cosponsored by my good friend and colleague, Congressman DeSaulnier, expands on this specific requirement and requires employers to share their plans with their employees through email and other methods, following the completion of their annual training.

Doing so would ensure that, in addition to the other training and guidance provided by their employers, employees have access to their own digital copies of their organization's violence prevention plans. Having this access will permit them greater flexibility to access and review these important documents as they feel necessary.

This is a commonsense amendment that will make it easier for covered employees to feel comfortable with their organization's workplace violence prevention plans.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Ms. FOXX of North Carolina. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Chair, I close by reiterating that this amendment is a short and uncontentious proposal to help covered employees feel comfortable with their organization's workplace violence prevention plans.

By requiring employers to make their organization's workplace violence prevention plans available through email and other methods, this amendment would ensure that employees have access to their own digital copies of their organization's plans. Having this access will permit employees greater flexibility to access and review these important documents as they feel necessary.

Madam Chair, I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. HASTINGS. Madam Chair, I am pleased to rise in support of my colleague, Mr. DeSaulnier's amendment to H.R. 1309.

As my good friend knows, I was planning to introduce an amendment that was virtually identical to his, and so I was happy to make this a combined effort and support his amendment as a cosponsor.

As has already been explained, this amendment would require employers to provide information about trauma and trauma-related counseling for employees in their reporting, incident response, and post-incident investigation procedures.

Doing so would ensure that employees have access to this vital information in the wake of incidents involving workplace violence. I think this is an important consideration as we consider this legislation responding to high rates of workplace violence.

Our Nation's caregivers, including nurses, social workers, and many others working in the healthcare and social service sectors, suffer workplace violence injuries at far higher rates than in any other profession.

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