This morning, 1199SEIU delivered a letter to Massachusetts lawmakers advocating for the expansion of pending legislation to toughen penalties for anyone who assaults on-duty healthcare workers. According to BLS, workers in the healthcare industry suffer violent attacks and other incidents of workplace violence at almost twice the rate of all other private sector workers.

The original act relevant to assault and battery on healthcare providers applied only to select job titles, and 1199SEIU has been a strong advocate for the legislation (H.1696) to include protections for all healthcare workers:

"All nurses, doctors and all other employees of hospitals, nursing homes and community health clinics deserve to be included under this assault and battery statute."

This afternoon, an amendment offered by State Rep. Michael Rodrigues was accepted to increase penalties called for in the bill, as advocated for by 1199SEIU members, to affect offenders who assaulted any healthcare worker in the workplace--not just select job classifications. Shortly after, the bill passed the House, and will next be voted on by the Senate.