November 15, 2024 — When members at the OMH Secure Treatment and Rehabilitation Center (STARC) Oakview in Marcy, N.Y., needed help recently, PEF stepped up.
Staff at STARC Oakview sought a solution to violence being inflicted on staff by patients. PEF, CSEA and NYSCOBA, joined forces to file a complaint within the Workplace Violence Prevention Act. The complaint was filed with the NYS Department of Labor Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) Bureau in February 2024, who investigated whether the agency and facility were compliant and doing their best to keep workplace violence incidents to a minimum.
“Despite there being evidence that there was enough violence to warrant the investigation, PESH determined that there were controls in place and the facility was doing what it could,” said PEF Occupational Health and Safety Specialist Josh Kemp.
Kemp said that these controls amounted to secure zones and the facility had protocols to deal with the violence when it happened, but that incident and injury logs still reported that 50% of the violence was due to patients attacking staff, with 20 employees sent to a hospital due to injuries caused by a single patient.
“We gathered a lot of evidence that showed that, even though there were some controls, they were not effective enough,” said Kemp. “People were still getting seriously hurt.”
When the PESH investigation yielded little results, Kemp decided to look at the issues from a different perspective. He turned his focus to the lack of Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE.
“Most of us think of PPE as masks, face shields and goggles,” said Kemp. “We’re used to the type of PPE that protects us from chemicals and illness, but not the type that protects from physical harm.”
During the investigation, employees shared their personal stories. Most of them described how they were bitten, kicked and punched by patients. However, the most glaring issue was the lack of knowledge about how to use PPE.
“When we asked them if they used PPE to protect themselves, if offered, no one knew it was an option,” said Kemp.
Kemp, along with representatives from the other unions, returned to PESH to file a complaint again, stating that while there are controls in place to handle some violence, the facility was neither providing adequate PPE to the staff, nor training them on how to effectively use that PPE. Equipment such as bite guards, shin guards, protective head gear, shields and other forms of PPE should be available to protect staff members dealing with a potentially violent patient population.
“The risk to the staff was no longer just chemical spills,” said PEF Director of Health and Safety Geraldine Stella. “Now, the human factor is the hazard.”
PESH agreed with the unions that STARC Oakview did not do enough to provide PPE to staff. In a notice of violation sent to the facility in September 2024, PESH filed four citations for the facility to address the inadequacies at the location.
The facility must first provide employees with the appropriate PPE and protective clothing, including hand protection, which falls under a different legal citation. The facility must also do a better job at determining whether this PPE is needed based on reported hazards. According to the violation notice from PESH, the employer kept the appropriate logs to document incidents, but did not respond to incidents or assess the hazards properly in order to offer the appropriate PPE.
Additional citations state that the employer did not provide injury and incident reports in a timely manner. Those logs were eventually received by PEF and the other unions.
A change to the citations was issued on November 14, 2024. The change removed the requirement for the facility to train individuals on how to effectively implement and use PPE provided by the agency.
The revision, according to Kemp, means that if the facility does not properly train employees on the use of PPE, PEF can submit a new complaint.
Kemp said that this is a win for PEF members and all employees at Oakview who were looking for a long-term solution to a problem that most thought would never go away. However, he also said that he knows the facility may push back.
“We’re expecting the agency to think that we want everyone just walking around in PPE,” said Kemp. “But that’s not true. They already have a hierarchy of controls to figure out the best course of action. The PPE is just meant as another control when needed. Another tool in the box.”
PEF is hopeful that Oakview complies soon. In the revised notice of violation, PESH gave the agency until January 29, 2025, to provide the recommended PPE.
PEF is also hopeful that all members at the Office of Mental Health (OMH) and other agencies where workplace violence is a paramount concern, like the Office for People with Developmental Disabilities (OPWDD), see the approach the union has taken to address it at Oakview in the hope that similar outcomes might be helpful in other facilities.
“This is why members and leaders should be reaching out to PEF Health and Safety,” said Stella. “If they want to make a PESH complaint, we can really help them finesse the complaint and get results.”
Kemp said that workers at OMH, OPWDD, and other agencies are exhausted and fed up with the danger their job poses, but he believes this approach could work to bring effective controls and much needed conversation to health and safety committees.
“The people who work at these agencies love the work they do, but many believe that getting attacked is just ‘part of the job’ and that there is nothing they can do,” said Kemp. “We really want to change the entire culture to protect our members.”
Editor’s Note: If you have a health and safety complaint related to your worksite, please contact your Field Representative. Call your Regional Office if you don’t know the name of your field rep. You may also reach out to HealthandSafety@pef.org.