Domestic Violence Spillover in the Workplace

States in blue have DV leave laws.

A Leave for Domestic Violence
Did you know that Oregon has protective leave for victims of Domestic Violence (DV), Sexual Assault and Stalking? Officially it is called “Oregon’s Victims of Certain Crimes Leave Act” and was passed in 2007. Nationwide, there are only 14 states having a similar leave law for victims of Domestic Violence.

Why is it beneficial to be aware of the law?
DV exists – it affects nationwide about 1 in 3 and in Oregon about 1 in 10 women. DV does not stay at home – it can be costly to the workplace because of absenteeism and lost productivity of both victims and perpetrators of vio­lence (about $900 million in lost productivity in 2008).

CROET RV.

CROET Making a Difference: “DV and the Workplace” Training

CROET (under the leadership of Drs. Kent Anger, Diane Rohlman and Research Assistant Naima Laharnar) provided interactive computer-based training (cTRAIN software– NwETA) to 28 of 36 Oregon counties. The training included information on the protective leave law, but also information on how a supervisor can support the employee who is a victim. Research teams set up laptops in county’s conference rooms or also in a training specific CROET RV.

Our Findings

• Training – In total we trained almost 800 county supervisors.
• Knowledge – Supervisors’ knowledge improved to 95-100% correct scores from pre-training test to post-training test.
• Reaction – We received very positive reactions about the study and the training.
• Motivation – Counties showed an increased awareness and motivation in implementing workplace support for DV (including DV policies, posters, trainings, etc.).
• More – We tracked county’s leave usage, safety climate as measured by sur­vey questions, walkthroughs of the county build­ings to look for evidence of support for victims of DV and confidential interviews with DV survivors and county supervisors who worked with DV survivors. The study is currently in its last phase and data will be analyzed in the following months.

This training intervention is part of a statewide research study, funded by NIOSH and jointly conducted by Johns Hopkins, OHSU and Kaiser Center for Health Research with Dr. Nancy Glass from Johns Hopkins as the principal investigator.

Submitted by: Naima Laharnar, CROET Research Assistant

More information on CROETweb.com about Domestic and Workplace Violence.