By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer
The town of Lysander has revamped its workplace violence prevention program in response to an audit from the New York State Department of Labor. The Lysander Town Board approved the new program as a stopgap at its April 19 meeting and the town will revisit the issue in the fall.
With Councilor Roman Diamond absent, the board approved the measure 3-1, with Deputy Supervisor Bob Geraci casting the dissenting vote.
Geraci said he supported the workplace violence prevention program but took issue with the wording of one section: “All employees were advised at a department head meeting that if he or she feels unsafe working after hours that he or she should not work after hours.”
“I think that’s really opening up a can of worms,” Geraci said.
Geraci said that the phrasing could allow employees to refuse work with no penalty from the town and could lead to the town lacking essential personnel at meetings or events held after business hours.
“I’m not a wordsmith here, but I would have liked the opportunity to defer this one more meeting,” Geraci said before the vote. “It’s a vote on principle, not against the program.”
Supervisor Joe Saraceni said during the work session that an employee reported the town to the DOL, which sent representatives unannounced for an inspection and found the workplace violence program was incomplete.
“One of our employees called the Department of Labor and said they weren’t comfortable with where we were with our workplace violence program — not just policy, the program in general,” Saraceni said. “There were some things missing from previous work done, that it wasn’t completed.”
Saraceni said the town had addressed workplace violence concerns and interviewed employees about the matter, but ultimately did not put their findings into the workplace violence prevention program. He said the program applies only to town hall employees.
“All we’ve done is taken that and put it into a formal document that we will then review completely in September,” Saraceni said.
Saraceni said he and Comptroller David Rahrle worked with the DOL and union representatives to agree on the new program, which would be adequate until the town revisits the policy in the fall. For the September revision, employees will be asked to share their concerns once again so the town can develop the program and approve the new document.
“I don’t understand how we’re empowering employees,” Geraci said. “The only solution here [is] ‘You don’t have to come to work’ as opposed to say, ‘The town will work with that employee to provide mechanisms to provide a level of safety that the employee warrants, needs.’”
Geraci said the town should address workplace safety issues on an individual basis instead of just offering employees the opportunity to not come to work.
“This has very little to do what we’re comfortable with. This has everything to do with what our employees are comfortable with,” Saraceni said.
Rahrle noted that working after hours is not usually expected of town hall employees, and such safety concerns are usually related to worries about being the only person in the building.
The town has already addressed individual safety issues, Saraceni added. For example, the town hired off-duty Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office deputies to provide security for court and town board meetings.
“We’re on the clock to get this thing done,” Saraceni said. “The Department of Labor came down hard on us.”
The town faces a fine $200 per day for not having a complete workplace violence prevention program.
Earlier this year, the state DOL penalized the town of Queensbury for similar violations. Queensbury is appealing the $18,496 in fines it owes.
