Committee hears bill allowing employers to seek workplace protective orders after threats or violence

Senate Labor and Commerce Committee members heard testimony on April 23 regarding Senate Bill 49, which would create a workplace protective order process modeled on Alaska’s domestic violence protective order procedures and would allow employers or organizations to seek protection when someone commits or threatens violence at a workplace.

Brianna Kakaruk, staff to Senator Matt Claman (sponsor), said the proposal responds to situations in which a former employee or other individual has made a credible threat to return to a work site to shoot or otherwise harm people. Kakaruk told the committee that the current civil process to obtain protection can take several days and cost thousands of dollars, while domestic violence protective orders are often obtainable within a day. Under SB 49, an employer could petition for a protective order if an individual has "committed an act of violence against an employer or employee at the workplace" or "made a threat of violence ... that may be carried out at the workplace." The bill makes violation of such an order the crime of violating a protective order, a class A misdemeanor, and would bar awarding attorney fees against the petitioner in certain related proceedings.

Advocates for survivors and victim-service organizations testified in support. Brenda Stanfill, executive director of the Alaska Network on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault, said workplace protective orders would give organizations an option to protect clients and staff without requiring that a person seeking shelter disclose their stay: "This would give the opportunity for the organization if they felt there was a credible threat to the organization, to that location, to be able to get the protective order without ever even having to disclose if the person was staying there," she said. Stanfill described situations in small communities where a person would stand just outside a property line and intimidate staff but not meet trespassing thresholds.

Eileen Arnold, executive director of Tundra Women's Coalition in Bethel, described a case in which an abuser followed a woman to Bethel and physically impeded her from entering shelter property. Arnold said the abuser later "threatened to go get his gun so that he could shoot her and then burn TWC down," calling it a credible threat in a region where building fires are a realistic danger. She said a workplace protective order could have been used to protect staff and residents when victims choose not to obtain personal protective orders for safety or privacy reasons.

Committee staff and the Alaska Court System were present to answer questions about court procedures; no committee member raised objections during discussion. With no recorded vote, the committee "set Senate Bill 49 aside," according to Chair Merrick. The bill’s sponsor and advocates asked the committee to move the measure forward to give workplaces and service providers an expedited option to address credible threats and violence.