Employer Precautions for the Domestic Violence Victim

Safety plans for the workplace are ideally a joint effort involving the employee, the employer, law enforcement, and local domestic violence service providers.

• Encourage the victim to save any threatening e-mail or voice-mail messages. These can potentially be used for future legal action, or can serve as evidence that an existing order of protection was violated.
• Make arrangements for the victim to have priority parking near the building.
• Have calls screened, transferring harassing calls to security - or have the victim's name removed from automated phone directories.
• Relocate the victim's workspace to a more secure area or another site.
• Encourage the victim to obtain an order of protection that includes the workplace, and keep a copy on hand at all times. The victim may want to consider providing a copy to the police, the supervisor, security, or human resources.
• Provide a picture of the perpetrator to reception areas and/or security.
• Identify an emergency contact person should the employer be unable to contact the victim.
• Ask security to escort the employee to and from vehicle or public transportation.
• Have employee paychecks delivered to another location.
• Make sure the employee knows about your violence in the workplace policy and how to report any incident. Make certain the employee knows specifics of your policy - does it include threats over the telephone? Non-employees as well as employees? A specific telephone number to call?