Under OSHA's general-duty clause, all employers have the
obligation to maintain a safe workplace regardless of whether OSHA
has adopted any particular standard relating to how the tasks at
issue are to be performed. In the current administration, OSHA is
showing a willingness to stretch the general-duty clause to cover a
broader number of workplace-safety issues than ever before. One of
those areas is workplace violence, whether internal among employees
or external from a crime.
OSHA has focused particularly on retailers whose practices it
believes provide a heightened opportunity for employees to become
victims of a violent crime while on the job. On November 19, 2012,
this focus became formal when OSHA issued a Citation and
Notification of Penalty to a Dallas, Texas convenience store
regarding failure to maintain a safe workplace by placing employees
in a situation where they were "exposed to violence in the
workplace."
