Occurrences of Workplace Violence Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic, United States, March 2020 to August 2021

Suzanne M. Marsh (), Carissa M. Rocheleau, Eric G. Carbone, Daniel Hartley, Audrey A. Reichard and Hope M. Tiesman
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Suzanne M. Marsh: Surveillance and Field Investigations Branch, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Carissa M. Rocheleau: Field Research Branch, Division of Field Studies and Engineering, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, OH 45226, USA
Eric G. Carbone: Surveillance and Field Investigations Branch, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Daniel Hartley: Office of Extramural Programs, Office of the Director, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Audrey A. Reichard: Surveillance and Field Investigations Branch, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Hope M. Tiesman: Analysis and Field Evaluations Branch, Division of Safety Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 21, 1-14

Abstract: As businesses dealt with an increasingly anxious public during the COVID-19 pandemic and were frequently tasked with enforcing various COVID-19 prevention policies such as mask mandates, workplace violence and harassment (WPV) emerged as an increasing important issue affecting worker safety and health. Publicly available media reports were searched for WPV events related to the COVID-19 pandemic that occurred during 1 March 2020, and 31 August 2021, using Google News aggregator services scans with data abstraction and verification. The search found 408 unique WPV events related to COVID-19. Almost two-thirds involved mask disputes. Over half (57%) of the 408 events occurred in retail (38%) and food service (19%). We also conducted a comparison of events identified in this search to a similar study of media reports between March 2020 to October 2020 that used multiple search engines to identify WPV events. Despite similar conclusions, a one-to-one comparison of relevant data from these studies found only modest overlap in the incidents identified, suggesting the need to make improvements to future efforts to extract data from media reports. Prevention resources such as training and education for workers may help industries de-escalate or prevent similar WPV events in the future.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; workplace violence; media scraping; employee safety; assault; mask policy; news media (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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