Workplace violence is a serious threat to American employers and employees. Although homicide in the workplace has steadily declined since 1994, it is still the fourth leading cause of workplace fatalities in the United States.

In addition, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that in 2006, more than 22,000 employees in private industry missed days of work because of nonfatal injuries that resulted from violent assaults in the workplace. Seventy percent of those injured missed three or more days of work as a result. The total number of workplace assaults, however, is much higher.

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A proposed measure that would amend the Colorado Constitution to bar employers from firing or suspending employees without just cause was certified for the November 2008 ballot by the Colorado secretary of state on August 22. The “Just Cause Initiative,” which will appear on the November ballot as Amendment 55, gathered more than 130,000 signatures to be placed on the ballot. State law required only 76,047 certified signatures to make the ballot.

If Amendment 55 passes in November, covered employers would be required to provide an employee with written documentation showing that his termination or suspension was for “just cause,” which is defined to mean specified types of employee misconduct or substandard job performance, the filing of bankruptcy by the employer, or discharge or suspension due to adverse economic circumstances affecting the employer. Companies with fewer than 20 employees, governmental entities, and nonprofit organizations with fewer than 1,000 workers would be exempt from the just-cause requirement. Employees who are subject to collective bargaining agreements that require just cause for discharge or suspension also wouldn’t be protected by the measure.

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Effective August 15, Louisiana will join a growing number of “red” states that have limited employer policies banning guns from the workplace. Under the new law (Senate Bill 51), employers may not prohibit employees from storing “lawfully possessed” firearms in their locked personally owned or leased vehicles while parked on company property.

The new law does not limit an employer’s right to prohibit employees from carrying firearms on their person while at work or on company property when outside of their personal vehicles or from carrying or storing firearms in company-owned or -leased vehicles provided to employees for their business and personal transportation. The new law also expressly allows employers to require that any firearms stored in employees’ personal vehicles be hidden from plain view or locked in a case or container within the vehicle.

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