Editor’s note: Sacramento Snapshot is a weekly series during the legislative session detailing what Orange County’s representatives in the Assembly and Senate are working on — from committee work to bill passages and more.
An effort to help employers ensure protections for workers who are being harassed while on the job advanced in the legislature last week.
Employers, if this bill were to pass, would be able to seek temporary restraining orders on behalf of their employees who are being harassed by members of the public while at work, which can cause severe emotional distress and disrupt work productivity, said Sen. Catherine Blakespear, the bill’s author who represents parts of southern Orange County, including Mission Viejo.
Without the threat or act of violence, employers are unable to do so now, Blakespear said, and instead, it’s incumbent on the employee to seek protection they feel is needed, which can require a lot of money, legal expertise, time and emotional resources.
“The problem we’re trying to solve for is that we don’t want to have to reach the point of unlawful violence or a threat of violence before intervening,” Blakespear said.
An example, Blakespear said, is an instance when a person repeatedly contacted Carlsbad city employees about his lack of housing, but the workers did not have the ability to provide what he requested. The person called and emailed the employees multiple times a day, shouting expletives and leaving recordings of employees he obtained without consent over the course of a year, according to information provided by the city.
Ultimately, the city said, the conduct escalated to a credible threat of violence, and a workplace violence restraining order was obtained.
As legislative work continues, the bill is expected to clarify that an employer must show a court “clear and convincing evidence” that the harassment incident serves “no legitimate purpose” and that a restraining order would not infringe…
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