Conference offers
tools to thwart
work violence

The event, held on the anniversary
of the Xerox murders,
will address isle dangers

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By Debra Barayuga
dbarayuga@starbulletin.com

An employee who posts a bull's eye with the boss' face on the bulletin board at work. A coworker who frequently comes to work with unexplained bruises or black eyes. A problematic client or customer. An employee who is stalked at work.

The face of workplace violence is no longer just a disgruntled employee named Byran Uyesugi, says Big Island psychologist Harold Hall, the state's rebuttal witness in the murder trial of the state's worst multiple slaying.

Anyone who commits or threatens any violent act toward people at work or even away from the work site can be guilty of workplace violence, said Hall, who has evaluated hundreds of criminal or violent individuals in the past 30 years -- of which a significant number have committed violence connected to the workplace.

Consider the cases locally of Melchor Tabag, a door-to-door carpet cleaner salesman who called on a potential customer at home and was killed and butchered, never to be seen again. Or Cherry Ann Domingo, fatally shot outside her workplace by her ex-boyfriend. Or John Miranda who held coworkers hostage with a shotgun at his former workplace at Sand Island.

While incidents like these highlight that the work environment is becoming more and more vulnerable to acts of violence, it's just a matter of time before people begin dropping their guard, Hall said.

That's why it's so important that employers have a system in place that will predict and identify employees or clients who pose a risk of violence either to themselves or others and establish procedures to address these situations, he said.

How employers can deal with workplace violence is the topic of a one-day conference at the Hawaii Convention Center on Friday, the second anniversary of the Xerox murders.

The conference is dedicated to the victims and families of seven Xerox employees killed during Uyesugi's shooting rampage. It is sponsored by the nonprofit Pacific Institute for the Study of Conflict and Aggression.

"I'm trying to empower the people associated with the workplace," said Hall, founder of the Pacific Institute for the Study of Conflict and Aggression and director of Psychological Consultants, which he began in 1985. "At the same time, I'm trying to put the businesses on notice that, hey, they've got to protect their people."

Workplace violence has escalated to a point that the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 1992 estimated that 1,400 people are killed at work every year, according to psychiatrist Theodore B. Feldman and psychologist Phillip W. Johnson who wrote "Workplace Violence: A New Form of Lethal Aggression."

They note that homicide is now the second leading cause of workplace deaths, the No. 1 cause of death for women in the workplace and third leading cause of death for men in the workplace.

Organizations need an all-encompassing program to deal with problems of workplace violence that goes beyond the traditional standard operating procedures for violent events, increased security or employee assistance programs to work with potentially troublesome employees, Hall said.

While these are obvious steps taken by many businesses, surprisingly not even the largest corporations have them, he said.

If employers look at instances of workplace violence on the mainland and the Uyesugi case, angry employees return and target not one but multiple coworkers, said Honolulu attorney Michael Green, one of the conference presenters and lawyer for three plaintiffs who filed civil suits against Xerox over the Uyesugi shootings.

Besides the lives lost, the potential for litigation and punitive damages can destroy a company financially, Green said.

Uyesugi's employer ordered he undergo mental health treatment after one particularly violent episode in which he kicked an elevator door but assumed he was fine after that, Green said.

During two interviews with Green, the former copy machine repairman said he killed his coworkers because they were sabotaging his equipment and because he was going to be trained on a new machine, giving his coworkers more opportunity to mess with his work. Whether those beliefs were true or imagined, Uyesugi basically felt that way for 13 years, Green said.

It is critical that supervisors have a confidential system set up to constantly monitor employees, notify one another about the problems they're seeing and ensure employees get the help they need, he said.

Xerox Hawaii has maintained it did have workplace safety policies in place before the fatal shootings and followed them when dealing with past incidents of violence involving Uyesugi.

As part of a $35 fee, conference participants will receive $200 worth of materials, including a computer diskette that contains a workplace violence risk assessment checklist employers can use to identify potentially violent employees and deficiencies in their organization that could make their company vulnerable to the presence of violence.

The conference will help employers use the workplace violence checklist to get a better handle on their work environment and determine whether they need to be concerned.

"If you're talking about a program that costs virtually little money as opposed to the kind of problems at Xerox and the potential for litigation, it makes sense to err on the side of safety," Green said.

"It's a morally right thing to do to have workplace violence prevention and a risk analysis program in place. The people of Hawaii deserve nothing less," Hall said.

Meeting info "Violence on the Job: Prediction, Prevention and Intervention," a conference presented by the Pacific Institute for the Study of Conflict and Aggression. >> When: Friday, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. >> Where: Hawaii Convention Center, meeting room 320. >> Cost: $35 registration covers materials and refreshments. >> Call: 885-9800 to register.