Nearly one in five violent incidents in Canada occurred in the workplace of the victim in 2004 and the majority of the workplace crimes were physical assaults, says a new Statistics Canada study.

The study, released Friday, said the violent incidents included three main offences — physical assault, sexual assault and robbery. It found that there were more than 356,000 violent incidents in the workplace in Canada in 2004.

Of the total, 71 per cent of the workplace incidents were considered physical assaults.

"Physical assaults are the most common type of violent incident regardless of location of the incident," the study said.

But the study was criticized by the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, a centre in Hamilton, Ont., that has researched workplace violence for more than 10 years.

Jessie Callaghan, a specialist on workplace violence, said Statistics Canada narrowly defined the problem for the purposes of the study.

"I think what is really shocking about this report is that they are just talking about physical assault, sexual assault and robbery," Callaghan told the Canadian Press.

"We define violence much more broadly in terms of developing a prevention program.

"The reason we do that is … if you catch it earlier when it is things like verbal abuse or psychological harassment, it may not escalate. It's the whole premise of nipping it in the bud."

In the study, physical assault was defined as victims being hit, slapped, grabbed, knocked down or beaten, or being threatened face to face with physical harm or an incident involving a weapon.

But the study said weapons were not common in violent incidents in the workplace. For some victims, as well, it said the consequences of the incidents were emotional.

According to the study, a workplace was defined as a commercial or institutional establishment, such as a restaurant, bar, school, office building, factory, store, hospital or prison.

Men more likely to be injured

The study, the first ever to measure criminal victimization on the job, found that men and women were equally likely to have been victims of workplace violence but men were more likely to be injured.

Workplace violence was also more common in certain places of employment, according to the study, which used data from the 2004 General Social Survey. 

A third of all workplace violence took place against victims working in social assistance or health-care services, including hospitals and nursing homes.

The study also found a high number of incidents involving victims working in accommodation or food services, retail or wholesale trade and educational services.

Police were more likely to be alerted to workplace violence than violence outside the workplace, the study found.

Violent incidents inside the workplace were twice as likely to be reported to police as violent incidents outside of the workplace, it said.

Men were also more likely than women to report violent incidents to police.

Telling co-workers

In general, 57 per cent of violent workplace incidents involving male victims were reported to police, compared to only 20 per cent of those involving female victims.

The study said in close to nine out of 10 incidents, victims of workplace violence reported telling another co-worker about the incident.

In two-thirds of the incidents, victims said they told family, friends and neighbours.

In 20 per cent of incidents, the victims told a doctor or nurse.

In contrast, victims of violent incidents outside of the workplace told a co-worker in 30 per cent of the incidents, family in 47 per cent, friends and neighbours in 76 per cent and a doctor or nurse in six per cent.

The 2004 General Social Survey, which provided self-reported data for the study, questioned respondents in about 24,000 households. Respondents were asked about the prevalence of violence for three offences — physical assault, sexual assault and robbery — in the previous 12 months.

According to the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health, there are factors that increase the risk of violence in the workplace. They include:

• Working with the public.
• Handling money, valuables or prescription drugs.
• Carrying out inspection or enforcement duties.
• Providing service, care, advice or education.
• Working with unstable or volatile persons.
• Working in premises where alcohol is served.
• Working alone, in small numbers or in isolated or low-traffic areas.
• Working in community-based settings.
• Having a mobile workplace, such as a taxi.
• Working during periods of intense organizational change.

With files from the Canadian Press