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EspañolWhat is an injunction against workplace violence? Who can file for one?
An injunction against workplace violence is designed to prevent future harm from an abuser at the workplace. If any one of the crimes listed below occurs to an employee or to a person invited into the workplace (“invitee”) by the employer, the employer can seek a temporary restraining order, a preliminary injunction, and an injunction prohibiting further unlawful acts by the abuser at the work site. The “work site” includes any place at which work is being performed on behalf of the employer.1 (Note: Unless you are your employer’s authorized agent, you cannot petition for an injunction on your own behalf.)
To get an injunction against workplace violence, an employer must show a judge that one of the following has happened:
- An employee/invitee was the victim at any location of:
- a terroristic act, rape, battery, domestic battering, assault on a family or household member; or
- a “crime of violence,” which includes murder, manslaughter, kidnapping, mayhem, assault to do great bodily harm, robbery, burglary, housebreaking, breaking and entering, and larceny;2
- An employee/invitee received one of the following threats of violence at any location and it can reasonably be interpreted as a threat that may be carried out at the work site:
- terroristic threatening, threatening a catastrophe, threatening an assault, or threatening domestic battering;3 or
- An employee/invitee has been stalked or harassed at the workplace, which includes any of the following crimes committed against the employee/invitee at a work site:
- loitering, criminal trespass, harassment, and stalking.1
Note: Your employer may file for an injunction against workplace violence regardless of whether or not you have an order of your own, such as an order of protection or a no contact order.
The injunction can be served upon the abuser by law enforcement and enforced anywhere within the state of Arkansas by law enforcement.4
1 Ark. Code § 11-5-115(a)(3)
2 Ark. Code §§ 5-73-202(1); 11-5-115(a)(1)
3 Ark. Code § 11-5-115(a)(2)
4 See Ark. Code § 11-5-115(c)-(e)
What protections can I get in an injunction against workplace violence?
An injunction against workplace violence can:
- Order the defendant not to visit, assault, bother, or otherwise interfere with the employer, the employer’s operations, the specified employee or invitee at the employer’s work site;
- Order the defendant not to stalk the specified employee or invitee at the employer’s work site;
- Order the defendant not to abuse or injure the employer, the employer’s property, the specified employee or invitee at the employer’s work site;
- Order the defendant not to harass the employer, the specified employee or invitee at the employer’s work site;
- Order the defendant not to contact your place of work - or you or your employer while you’re there; and
- Anything else a judge thinks is necessary.1
1 Ark. Code § 11-5-115(b)(2)
How is an injunction against workplace violence different from other types of orders?
There are several ways in which an injunction against workplace violence is different from other types of protective orders.
First, the person who asks the court for an order is the employer or an authorized agent of the employer, not the victim. Second, the victim’s cooperation may not be necessary for the employer to get the injunction and an employer may even get one without the victim’s prior knowledge or against the victim’s wishes. Third, an injunction against workplace violence generally only protects a victim while s/he is at work but not at other times. Therefore, a victim of abuse may still want to consider applying for an order of protection on his/her own. For more information, go to our Domestic Violence Orders of Protection page.
