Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Legal Q&AHR practiceViolence at work

Weekly dilemma: Violent attacks on staff

by Personnel Today 28 Nov 2006
by Personnel Today 28 Nov 2006

I am the HR manager at a company that operates local convenience stores. Four weeks ago, one store fell victim to an armed robbery. The two assistants were held up at knifepoint and cash and cigarettes were taken. Luckily no-one was injured, but both women were understandably shaken up. In line with company policy, I offered the women counselling, but both refused. One has still not returned to work, citing stress from the incident as the reason. What should I do next?



Violent crime in the retail sector continues to be a problem and local stores offering longer trading hours are particularly at risk.


Increasingly, rather than pursuing a claim against the Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, employees are making civil claims against their employers, claiming that they could have done more to protect them against these attacks. Therefore, these incidents and their aftermath need to be handled carefully.


While it is imperative and, as you say, your company’s policy to offer counselling to your employees if they have been subjected to violence at work, you cannot force your employees to undertake treatment. All you can do is emphasise the benefits.


Make sure that you have kept a written record of the offer of counselling and repeat the offer after an appropriate period of time. Point out that counselling may assist the employee in returning to full fitness and to work.


With the back up of counselling you should, if possible, offer a change in workplace as the shop where the attack took place may bring back bad memories for the employee. Another option is to offer a staged return to work, gradually building up to the hours the employee worked prior to the attack.


If you later receive a civil claim for damages from this employee, her refusal to attend counselling may be used as evidence of her failure to treat her illness. One word of warning though: the employee may say that she did not want to re-live the events and that is the reason why she refused – an accepted symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder – and it is unlikely that a judge would find her refusal unreasonable.



By Sarah Temperley, associate, Weightmans





Each week we ask the experts to answer your legal dilemmas. If you have a legal question or dilemma, e-mail [email protected]




Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
National Skills Academy for Financial Services appoints Sylvia Perrins as director
next post
Global competition: How are UK employers competing on the world stage?

You may also like

Frasers Group scraps Friday working from home policy

15 Jul 2022

M&S worker who suffered abuse from shoppers wins...

13 Jul 2022

Netherlands on track to approve working from home...

7 Jul 2022

Employment law changes for 2022 and beyond: update...

1 Jul 2022

Law protecting frontline workers against violence takes effect

28 Jun 2022

Four-day week: what are the legal considerations for...

28 Jun 2022

Sickness absence rate in 2021 was highest in...

8 Jun 2022

Right-to-work: first digital identity check providers revealed

6 Jun 2022

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

5 Jun 2022

Does a four day week work? Charlotte Lockhart...

1 Jun 2022
  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more
  • Preventing Burnout: How can HR help key workers get the right help? PROMOTED | Workplace wellbeing may seem a distant memory...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+