Download the ABA’s Model Workplace Policy on Employer Responses to Domestic Violence, Sexual Violence, Dating Violence and Stalking HERE
Model Workplace DSV Policy
Contact the ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence for expertise or technical assistance, training and support around workplace violence issues.
For media requests or expertise regarding workplace violence issues contact Betsy Adeboyejo of ABA Media Relations at 202-662-1039 or betsy.adeboyejo@americanbar.org
Demonstrate your organization's commitment to supporting employees who are victims of domestic and sexual violence and disciplining perpetrators by letting your colleagues know that you have a dynamic domestic and sexual violence workplace policy in place.
The CDSV Workplace Committee will assess the effectiveness and scope of your organization's policy; those organizations with qualifying policies will receive acknowledgement on the CDSV Website.
Domestic, dating, sexual and stalking violence are workplace issues that do not stay at home when victims and perpetrators go to work. By conservative estimates, 2,800,000 people are victimized by intimate partners annually. A recent study which looked to current and lifetime victimization rates determined that “29% of male workers and 40% of female workers reported having been subjected to intimate partner violence at some point in their lives.” The researchers determined that victimization rates in the workplace were higher than those in the general populace because DSV victims are “overrepresented in the workplace."
Domestic violence intersects with employment in myriad ways. A 2006 national survey found that 21% of full-time employed adult respondents (women and men) identified themselves as victims of intimate partner violence.
Establishing A Formal Workplace Policy is a Good Business Practice
A workplace policy that addresses DSV and its workplace impacts provides a guide for employers, supervisors and employees not only to respond in DSV in supportive, safe and effective ways, but also to engage in prevention as well.
The ABA Commission on Domestic & Sexual Violence has a number of collaborators on this project. For technical assistance and support, you may contact us using our “TA link” on this page. You may also seek the support of Workplaces Respond to Domestic & Sexual Violence: A National Initiative, led by CDSV Liaison and former Commission Member, Maya Raghu, and the Corporate Alliance to End Partner Violence, led by former CDSV Commissioner, Kim Wells.
Employment Law and Domestic Violence: A Practitioner's Guide
What Employers Need to Know About DSV
Published by the American Bar Association, Copyright, 2009