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Join the LPF and Sensormatic Solutions for a New Safety Webinar August 19, 2020 | 1:00pm EST

 

Avoiding Workplace Violence When Customers Refuse Masks

As businesses begin to reopen at varying rates and capacities, subject to state and federal containment measures, companies will be faced with the challenge of complying with safety standards while accommodating customers and clients.

Face coverings, gloves and social distancing remain standard preventive measures, and numerous jurisdictions have encouraged or even mandated such measures in public. The pandemic and the resultant restrictions have tapped a new source of fear and anger for some individuals.

A new normal brings new obligations.

While formulating a plan for reopening, businesses should be mindful that they must keep up to date on applicable state, local and federal guidelines and orders, which may indicate a business's obligation to enforce public health and social distancing measures or risk reclosure or additional penalties. Since the pandemic began, over 40 states and hundreds of local governments, as well as Washington, D.C., have enacted orders requiring face masks to some degree.

Governors of several states have issued executive orders requiring masks to be worn in all public places. None of these orders, however, have provided guidance to businesses as to how to enforce such requirements.

This has resulted in businesses becoming de facto enforcers of COVID-19-related safety mandates. When emotions are running high and stressors are prevalent, however, businesses can expect to be met with some resistance in their attempts to observe public health requirements, including individuals who become aggressive when required to wear a face mask.

Across the country, security guards face rising violence over enforcing protective mask requirements. Similarly, restaurant workers have been repeatedly met with violence when asking patrons to wear masks, including being spit upon, threatened and assaulted after trying to enforce mask requirements — including an incident in which a Plexiglas screen was hurled at an employee. These incidents have escalated to include shootings and stabbings, culminating in several fatalities.

Under the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act, employers have a general duty to provide a safe workplace for employees. In addition, businesses may open themselves up to potential liability by botching their responses to violent and threatening engagement occurring on their premises.

Given the likelihood of such encounters, businesses should think twice about the impact such threats could have on the safety of their employees and customers, as well as business operations.

What can businesses do?

In light of these highly publicized acts of violence, increased pressure is put upon businesses to provide employees with instruction on how to react when faced with situations that are likely to escalate into clashes. Not every establishment has security guards deployed on its premises, and even those businesses with security guards should not place those guards at risk to their safety to enforce public health guidelines.

There are a number of steps that businesses can take:
● Use signage.
● Request compliance.
● Leave enforcement to the professionals.
● Have a plan in place.

Read more here: law360.com

How Do You Require Customers to Wear Masks Without Endangering Employees?
Retailers are taking different approaches to alert customers about mask-wearing requirements. Walmart has created the role of "health ambassador" and will station these individuals at entrances to remind customers of mask requirements. "Our ambassadors will receive special training to help make the process as smooth as possible for customers," Walmart said in a statement.

But home-improvement retailer Lowe's won't enforce its new mask mandate, citing concerns about its associates' safety, The Charlotte Observer reported. Lowe's declined to comment to SHRM Online.

Robert LaCommare, VP of Asset Protection for Big Lots Stores, said in a video interview with Lisa LaBruno, Retail Industry Leaders Association's Sr. Executive VP of Retail Operations & Innovation, that there have been multiple arguments over face masks in Big Lots stores.

Associates are provided with "de-escalation scripts" that include such strategies as offering customers curbside service or masks, or checking out a customer's purchases at a register that is separate from others, he said.

"While cases of violence are certainly the exception, we have all seen the YouTube videos of customers behaving badly," LaBruno told SHRM Online.

"An employer should make clear that employees are not expected to enforce face-covering requirements and that their role should be limited to requesting and/or encouraging compliance with the business's policy," said Michele Ballard Miller and Bethany Vasquez, attorneys with Cozen O'Connor in San Francisco. "Emphasis should be placed on de-escalating the situation."

They said employees should report to their managers or security if a situation escalates. "Management should be responsive and take employees' concerns seriously," they said. "If employees feel like they are not being given enough support by their company in responding to disgruntled persons, it could cause employees to quit and possibly to file a claim for a hostile or unsafe work environment."

Update workplace-violence policies to cover nonemployee violence, and make employees aware of the company's procedure for reporting customer threats and aggression, they recommended. shrm.org

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Australia: Retail staff are experiencing up to a 400% increase in abuse from customers

Colorado Springs, CO: Fists fly over social distancing dispute inside Walmart
A full-on fistfight inside a local Walmart was caught on camera. The person who recorded the video said it started with a disagreement over social distancing.

“Lady in the blue, she was first in line, and the lady in the purple, I guess, was standing too close,” said Brianna Carroll, who recorded the incident. Carroll said neither of the women involved was wearing a mask.

Eventually, store employees were able to break up the fight. Colorado Springs police said a loss prevention officer notified a CSPD officer who was on scene. Police said they arrested 60-year-old Laura Barr, who is now facing a third-degree assault charge. kktv.com

Congress Debates Business Liability Shield for COVID-19 Lawsuits
Lawmakers are still negotiating the next round of federal coronavirus aid as the U.S. Senate tentatively prepares to adjourn for a month after Aug. 7. Protection for employers from COVID-19-related litigation is a major point of contention, with many Republicans supporting a liability shield and Democrats opposing the measure. shrm.org

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Working From Home

Remote Work Is Here to Stay. Bosses Better Adjust.

Even when the pandemic ends, many employees will continue to work from home. Here’s how managers can make sure those workers stay productive - without burning out.

It was mid-June, three months after the Covid-19 crisis had forced the top executives in a fast-growing tech startup to leave their offices and work from home. Executives had believed this “work from home thing” would last a few weeks, one of the company’s vice presidents told me, so they treated it like a brief emergency that required all hands on deck, all the time.

It was only when the vice president sent an email at midnight and got detailed comments from two colleagues within 15 minutes that he realized: This work from home thing wasn’t going away anytime soon, and things needed to change.

Every boss of a newly remote team whom I know admits that they’ve been pushing themselves and their teams harder. A study conducted by one 350-person team at Microsoft Corp. found that in the four months after the team moved to remote work in March, employees worked an average of four more hours a week, attended more (albeit shorter) meetings, and spent about 10% more time in meetings. Fragmented “Swiss cheese” days became common as people struggled to care for and teach their children, and to meet other personal obligations. A “night shift” emerged: Employees sent 52% more instant messages between 6 p.m. and midnight. They worked more hours on weekends.

But while remote work isn’t going away anytime soon, such a crisis schedule must. Wise leaders know it is time to figure out how they and their teams can work remotely and productively over the long haul while protecting everybody from burnout. They need to acknowledge that teams must work in different ways with different tools, that there are new workday rhythms and new norms of behavior that need to be established and recognized, and that it’s important to ease the stresses on people that come with remote work.

Here’s a closer look at how managers can run that ultramarathon without exhausting either themselves or their employees: wsj.com

Office Markets Under Pressure as Coronavirus Squeezes Cities
After closures of urban hotels and retail stores in recent weeks, property analysts worry that the office sector could be next to feel the pinch.

An increasing number of companies are opting to let more employees work remotely. That is a direct blow to office-building owners, as companies look for fewer and shorter leases. But it is a potential hit to big cities, too. Given the prospect of working remotely at home, some city residents have already started looking to move somewhere cheaper and with more space, real-estate agents say.

While office buildings won’t close as quickly as restaurants or shops, even a modest drop in office occupancy tends to generate a big drop in profit. That is in part because the cost of paying for heat, electricity and building staff usually stays about the same even when revenue falls. wsj.com

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