Larger Virginia employers would need policies to handle workplace violence

Employers with at least 100 employees would maintain workplace violence policies, train workers, and document incidents. Policies would fit each workplace's risks and cover reporting, emergency response, investigations, training, and steps to reduce hazards. Covered violence would occur at the workplace while an employee performs work duties. It would include weapon threats and suicidal thoughts or threats. Ordinary disagreements, performance discussions, and harassment complaints handled through separate processes would be excluded. Employers would keep incident records for at least five years and provide them to law enforcement on request. The act would take effect January 1, 2027. Workers would receive policy information when hired. Employers would document unreported incidents within 15 days of learning about them.

Covered employers would face civil fines for violations they fail to correct after notice. These fines would apply to employers with at least 100 employees that fail to follow the workplace violence requirements. Employers would have 30 days after notice to correct a violation before facing a fine. Fines would be capped at $1,000 per violation and $10,000 per calendar year. Payments would go to the Literary Fund. No fine under this provision could be imposed before July 1, 2027.

Employers would be barred from punishing workers for reporting workplace violence under a policy or otherwise. At employers with at least 100 employees, protection would also cover seeking help from employers or public authorities and exercising other rights under these requirements. The general reporting protection would not authorize unlawful disclosures, breaches of protected confidentiality, or statements made knowingly false or recklessly ignoring the truth. Workers who truthfully report workplace violence under a required policy would receive the referenced protection from civil lawsuits. These provisions would take effect January 1, 2027, if enacted.