• We believe U.S. workers have a right to

    Psychologically safe workplaces
    where our mental health is a priority.

    Our lives depend on it.

    #EndWorkplaceAbuse

We believe all people —
regardless of their gender, race, disabilities, sexual orientation, gender identity,
age, income, faith, religion, and political affiliations –
deserve to lead healthy and productive lives
and to work in psychologically safe environments free from abuse and oppression.

Governments regulate the environmental health of the workplace, but who’s making sure the U.S. workplace is psychologically safe? 

Governments only hold employers accountable for sexual harassment and discrimination, meaning only those who can prove discriminatory intent have protections.

But what about those who are in a protected class (think sex, race, or age) who can’t prove discriminatory intent? And what about the others who endure the same abuse but are in the same protected class as their abusers?

We shouldn’t have to quit our jobs to stop tolerating abuse at work of any kind.

Women’s suffrage. Civil rights. Gay marriage. Throughout U.S. history, movements have been the tool we’ve used to make social progress.

Our collective power is what will move the needle on creating psychologically safe workplaces. We’re building a movement advocating for psychological safety at work so workers can do the jobs we were hired to do — free from abuse of power.

It’s time to hold employers accountable.

We accept nothing less than basic respect at work.

We won’t stop until we eliminate psychologically abusive behaviors from the American workplace. We strive to protect and promote workers’ right to psychological wellness, critical to physical health, by advocating for the elimination of such abusive behaviors from the American workplace.

We’re organizing and leading a collective movement advocating for psychological safety at work. We lobby for protective legislation and policies, raise public awareness about psychological harm at work, build leaders who campaign for abuse-free workplaces, and collaborate with other organizations advancing workers’ rights. Because bias and prejudice are often an integral part of workplace abuse, we advocate for protections against discrimination.

Take action below to let your state legislators know we deserve better. Don’t wait for others to create change. Let’s change the workplace together.

survivors of workplace abuse

bill of rights

We're committed to ensuring that all workers are guaranteed working environments in which they're treated with dignity, an inherent basic right. Every worker deserves to feel:
  1. Safe. Workers deserve a workplace free of verbal abuse, threats, sabotage, and abuse of any kind.
  2. A sense of belonging. Workers deserve a right to feel like we are included in an organization and part of a team.
  3. Valued. Workers deserve a right to feel like our contributions have worth and importance.
  4. Respected. Workers deserve a right to dignity and have our human needs and individual strengths and weaknesses honored.
  5. Healthy. Workers deserve a right to feel strong. We deserve a right to work in environments that promote well-being.
  6. Accomplished. Workers deserve a right to information and resources necessary to do our jobs well so we can feel productive.
  7. Supported. Workers deserve a right to feel heard and have our needs addressed when we voice concerns.
  8. Fairly treated. Workers deserve a right to reasonable expectations and similar standards for our colleagues.
  9. Empowered. Workers deserve a right to have power and control over our work for confidence and strength.
  10. Part of a greater purpose. Workers deserve a right to play a meaningful role in the reason our organizations exists.

PRIORITY WORKERS' RIGHTS ISSUES

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE (WORKPLACE BULLYING AND MOBBING)

Psychological abuse at work ruins lives. It’s a misuse of power and control that violates workers’ right to psychological safety.

Workplace bullying and mobbing are forms of psychological abuse,  interpersonal perpetration that violate an employee’s inherent basic human right to dignity: severe or pervasive infliction of hostile and unethical words and/or actions, intentional or unintentional, direct or indirect, or omissions, directed in a targeted and/or systematic manner that creates a toxic work environment that is offensive, and a reasonable person would find unsuitable to perform regular duties and tasks. A single severe incident of such behavior may also constitute psychological abuse.

Workplace psychological abuse is an issue of employee exploitation. Employers are not explicitly liable for the psychological safety of their employees — nor do they want to be. At its root cause is avoidance of employer liability. Employers are negatively incentivized to address it. 

Workplace psychological abuse is highly affiliated with physical and/or mental health injuries. It is 4x more prevalent than sexual harassment alone. The phenomenon has been dubbed a silent epidemic and is a public health threat affecting over 60 million employees in the United States in 2017 (the equivalent of the entire population of Italy).

Abuse of power is often a symptom of implicit bias — a problem anti-discrimination law stopped helping since the ‘90s when courts moved from focusing on impact to intent. Intent is a high threshold that makes the law an epic failure when it comes to disrupting hierarchies at work around demographics.

HOW IT WORKS

Workplace bullying typically begins when one employee, who is generally insecure and/or jealous, is threatened by the competence or demeanor of another employee. The bully targets an unsuspecting employee to minimize and/or eliminate the perceived threat the employee poses to them. Bullies use persistent psychological abuse to control the narrative. They try to convince the employee they are incompetent. They try to convince others the employee is incompetent. Common tactics include:

False accusations, including bogus reviews
Ignoring or excluding someone
Career sabotage, including removal of responsibilities

In toxic work environments, when employees report psychologically abusive behavior to proper workplace authorities, those authorities ignore their complaints. Employers are not liable for psychologically abusive behavior, nor do many want to be. In toxic work environments, the employer, its representative employees mislead the unsuspecting employee to believe they have a legitimate complaint process to remedy the problem.

The employer fails to alter the employee’s unsafe work environment. The employer doesn’t remove the stressor. The emboldened bully continues to abuse the target without consequence or deterrent. The complaint process is unnecessarily prolonged.

The unsuspecting employee voluntarily leaves, dies, or is fired, succumbing to the silent killer stress of the work environment. There is significant physical, mental, and emotional injury as well as severe economic harm. Game over. The bully wins. Her perceived competition is gone. The employer wins. Their perceived threat of liability is gone. The unsuspecting employee had done nothing to provoke either.

Trauma upon trauma. When the employee realizes the institutional duplicity and complicity of tampering with their health and livelihood, forcing them off the payroll to avoid liability, trauma upon trauma occurs.

Upon trauma. The employee further realizes there is no legal recourse for any of it.

Who’s picking up the tab for the long-term health care of millions of unemployed citizens and basic needs costs? You are: the taxpayer. And you have been for decades.

HUMAN COSTS
Psychological distress (anxiety, depression, burnout)
Physiological outcome (heart disease, obesity, sleep problems, cancer, PTSD, suicidal thoughts, suicide)
Job and/or career loss and other financial harm

ORGANIZATION COSTS
Higher absenteeism, turnover, training costs, and employee benefits costs
Lower task performance, productivity, and morale

"to end sexual harassment on the job, end workplace bullying."

workplace abuse and #metoo

"Policymakers have enjoyed a free pass in discussions over what to do in response to the sexual harassment allegations taking down Hollywood producers, news media titans and actors. Because the worst of the transgressions already are illegal, lawmakers seem satisfied to call for culprits to be fired or to step down and for corporate and industry leaders to promise that they’ll crack down on offenders more quickly in the future. But legislators can do more to address the problem. They can make workplace bullying illegal. Too many corporate leaders find it expedient to look the other way when bosses — especially ones they deem indispensable — systematically intimidate and humiliate underlings. Bullies who believe that their whims matter more than other people’s dignity often don’t see why their sexual impulses shouldn’t be just as indulged."
David Lieberman
LA Times
word's getting out.

workplace psychological abuse in the media

How Toxic Work Cultures Are Driving the Great Resignation
Brené Brown with
Dr. Donald Sull & Charlie Sull
March 7, 2022

The New York Times logo

How Scott Rudin weilded his power in show business
Michael Paulson and
Cara Buckley
April 24, 2021

ALL WORKERS' RIGHTS ISSUES WE SUPPORT

ABUSIVE WAIVERS

In their next job search, workers might encounter employers asking them to waive their rights to basic protections. The abusive waivers bill would void provisions in contracts waiving rights or remedies relating to claims of discrimination, nonpayment of wages or benefits, retaliation, or harassment in employment.

TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts

PASSED
California
Maine
Maryland
New York
Vermont
Washington

AT-WILL EMPLOYMENT

Employees are at the will of their employers aside from difficult-to-prove discrimination. Once employers push these workers out, workers have no rights. The at-will employment bill prohibiting constructive discharge and wrongful termination would address this rampant issue. Montana is the only state to ban at-will employment.

TAKE ACTION
Maine
Massachusetts
Mississippi
New York (New York City only)
North Carolina

PASSED
Montana

BEREAVEMENT LEAVE

Workers deserve time off to properly grieve a loved one without worrying about losing their jobs. Bereavement leave bills would give workers time off to address the loss.

TAKE ACTION
California
Indiana
Massachusetts
New York

PASSED
Oregon

CREDIT REPORTS

Employers shouldn’t use credit reports or ask candidates to disclose their credit worthiness, standing, or capacity as criteria for employment.

TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Virginia

PASSED
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Hawaii
Illinois
Maryland
Nevada
Oregon
Vermont
Washington

CRIMINAL HISTORY
(BAN THE BOX ACT)

Employers shouldn’t be able to ask about criminal history if it doesn’t apply directly to the role.

TAKE ACTION
Alabama
Arizona
Iowa
Mississippi
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Vermont
West Virginia

PASSED
California
Illinois

DISCRIMINATION AGAINST NATURAL HAIRSTYLES
(THE CROWN ACT)

Rules about hairstyles are too often downright racist. The Crown Act aims to make discrimination against natural hairstyles and textures illegal.

TAKE ACTION
Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Georgia
Maine
Mississippi
Texas
Wisconsin

PASSED
Massachusetts

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

Victims of domestic violence and family members of them sometimes experience discharge or other forms of discrimination at work or in the hiring process. But they deserve reasonable accommodations at work.

TAKE ACTION
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan

PASSED
New York
Illinois
Washington

INJURED WORKERS

We need stronger anti-retaliation law. This bill provides for a complaint and investigation mechanism for enforcement and otherwise addresses employer misconduct that prevents workers from receiving timely medical care and benefits after physical injury.

TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts

MEDICARE FOR ALL

This safety net will make it easier for workers to leave toxic workplaces, removing the link between work and healthcare and helping those who work for themselves. Guaranteed equitable health care access for all through a single payer health care system will ensure healthcare without regard to financial or employment status, ethnicity, race, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, previous health problems, or geographic location. The act will provide access to continuous healthcare services without the current need for repeated re-enrollments or changes when employers choose new plans and workers change jobs. Coverage will be comprehensive and affordable, with no co-insurance, co-payments, or deductibles.

TAKE ACTION
California
Massachusetts

MINIMUM WAGE

Workers shouldn’t have to work multiple jobs to pay for basic living expenses. This bill would raise the minimum wage over several years to $15 per hour (lower in some states).

TAKE ACTION
Alabama
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Louisiana
Mississippi
Missouri
Nebraska
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Ohio
Pennsylvania
South Carolina
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia

PASSED
California
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Illinois
Maryland
Massachusetts
New Jersey
New York
Rhode Island

NON-DISCLOSURE AGREEMENTS

When employers make settlements with their presumed guilt and/or money savings, they often add gag clauses to protect their reputations. Yet those gag clauses silence targets and embolden serial abusers. The Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) bill would ban NDAs.

TAKE ACTION
Indiana
Maine
Massachusetts
Rhode Island
Virginia

PASSED
California
Hawaii
Illinois
Louisiana (public employees only)
Maine
Maryland
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Oregon
Vermont
Virginia
Washington

ONE FAIR WAGE FOR
TIPPED EMPLOYEES

Tipped workers (restaurant workers, drivers, and grocery pickers and deliverers) don’t make enough money to qualify for unemployment insurance in ways that non-tipped workers do. The One Fair Wage bill phases out the discriminatory subminimum wage for tipped workers that disproportionately affects women, making it gradually match the regular minimum wage.

TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
Minnesota
New Hampshire
North Carolina
Texas
Vermont

PASSED
Maryland
Montana
Nevada
Oregon
Washington

PAID FAMILY AND
MEDICAL LEAVE AND
PAID SICK LEAVE

We all do better when we have safety nets. We have the resources to provide a high quality of life for all as long as we have the political will. Support paid family and medical leave and paid sick leave.

TAKE ACTION
Arizona
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
New Mexico
North Carolina
North Dakota
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island (extend time only)
South Carolina
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia

PASSED
California
Connecticut
Maryland
Massachusetts
Nevada
New Jersey
New York
Washington

PAY DISCLOSURE

When workers disclose their pay history, employers can continue past discriminatory practices. This bill would ban employers from asking about pay history so workers in certain demographics can make salaries equitable to workers in more privileged demographics. Some of these bills allow employees to talk about their pay with co-workers — a way to expose the pay discrimination in the first place.

TAKE ACTION
Alaska
Arizona
Georgia
Indiana
Iowa
Louisiana
Virginia

PAY EQUITY

This bill would require employers to assess and correct pay disparities based on race, sex, and other characteristics.

TAKE ACTION
Arkansas
Florida
Indiana
Louisiana
New Jersey
North Carolina
Ohio
South Carolina
Utah

PASSED
California
Illinois
Michigan

PSYCHOLOGICAL ABUSE
(WORKPLACE BULLYING AND MOBBING)

Psychological abuse at work ruins lives. It’s a misuse of power and control that violates workers’ right to psychological safety. Workplace psychological abuse is an issue of employee exploitation. Employers are not explicitly liable for the psychological harm of their employees — nor do they want to be. At its root cause is avoidance of employer liability. Employers are negatively incentivized to address. The Workplace Psychological Safety Act would hold employers accountable for psychologically safe work environments.

PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION

Pregnant employees deserve rights. Variations of this bill require that employers provide reasonable accommodations for employees related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions unless the accommodation would cause an undue hardship on the employer.

TAKE ACTION
Alabama
Iowa
Minnesota
Mississippi
Texas

PASSED
Pennsylvania

PTSD AND
FIRST RESPONDERS

This bill requires compensation for police officers, correction officers, firefighters, and other emergency personnel diagnosed with PTSD for their mental health injuries on the job. Passage of this bill would say psychological injury on the job deserves compensation.

TAKE ACTION
Alabama
Arkansas
Connecticut
Florida
Kansas
New Jersey
New York

RIGHT TO STRIKE FOR PUBLIC EMPLOYEES

Withholding labor for stronger rights should be a fundamental human right. Strikes and the threat of them are a part of the collective bargaining process, especially for teachers. This bill calls for a repeal of a state law that bans public sector workers from going on strike.

TAKE ACTION
Kentucky
Massachusetts

SCHEDULING FOR
HOURLY EMPLOYEES
(FAIR WORKWEEK)

Hourly workers deserve respect for their time and their ability to pay basic living expenses. The Fair Scheduling/Fair Workweek bill provides workers the right to:

  • 14 days advance notice of hours
  • Request specific hours without retaliation from the employer
  • Rest for 11 hours between shifts
  • The offering of additional available hours before an employer can hire a new employee to fill them
  • Collect unemployment benefits when an employer’s failure to comply with Fair Scheduling practices is the worker’s reason for leaving a job.

TAKE ACTION
Colorado
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
New Jersey
New York

PASSED
California (San Francisco only)
Illinois (Chicago only)
New York (New York City only)
Oregon
Pennsylvania (Philadelphia only)
Washington (Seattle only)

SEXUAL ORIENTATION AND GENDER IDENTITY DISCRIMINATION

Variations of this legislation add sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender expression to protected class status.

TAKE ACTION
Arizona
Louisiana
Michigan
Texas

WAGE DATA REPORTING

De-identified wage and salary data public reporting of the gender and racial makeup of workforces is crucial for employer accountability for bias. While the data may reveal equity, in many cases it could reveal disparities that employers could voluntarily remedy or allow workers to file suit. If this data were made public, it would allow plaintiffs and attorneys an opportunity to assess the likelihood that illegal discrimination plays a role in the reward structures of employers.  California has already passed the Fair Pay Act that protects the rights of workers to ask about the compensation of coworkers in similar jobs.

TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
New York

WAGE THEFT

This bill would hold lead contractors accountable for the wage theft violations of their subcontractors as long as there’s a significant connection to their business activities. It would also protect workers from wage theft violations such as failure to make wage payments, failure to abide by minimum wage, prevailing wage and overtime laws, and independent contractor misclassification — and strengthen workers’ protection against retaliation. Ultimately, it would promote fair competition by ensuring that all businesses, including lead contractors, play by the rules and give their workers an honest day’s pay for an honest day’s work.

TAKE ACTION
Arkansas
Connecticut
Illinois
Iowa
Maine
Massachusetts
Michigan
New York
North Carolina
Rhode Island
Texas

PASSED
California
Florida
Oregon

WAGE TRANSPARENCY

It’s one thing to make it it illegal to ask about salary history, understanding the discriminatory impact of the question with accumulative differences among demographics. But employers can still ask for desired salary ranges, having the same effect. This bill provides even more protections for impacted workers by calling for employers to provide the pay scale for a particular employment position in the job posting, which also benefits employers.

TAKE ACTION
Massachusetts
Montana
New Jersey
Oregon
Rhode Island
South Carolina

PASSED
California
New York
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
Washington

KNOW OF OTHER WORKERS' RIGHTS BILLS IN YOUR STATE?

Email us with corrections and additions at info@endworkplaceabuse.com.

Be part of history.

take action in your state.

Take it to the next level.

Take action on the federal level

We’re often asked why these bills aren’t introduced on the federal level. If we look at the history of passing federal legislation, that legislation started with state action. Women’s suffrage, interracial marriage, and gay marriage all started with state passage that reached a tipping point over time, leading to federal passage. Jennifer Lawrence explains this idea well.

But there are a few workers’ rights bills we have our eyes on, and you can take action on them by contacting your legislators on the federal level to encourage them to not just support the bills but make them priorities:

BE HEARD Act (Bringing An End To Harassment by Enhancing Accountability and Rejecting Discrimination in the Workplace) (HR 2148)
Current law doesn’t do enough to stop discrimination, particularly for the most vulnerable workers. The BE HEARD Act strengthens and broadens discrimination laws, removes barriers for targeted and victimized employees, and helps employers create incentives and accountability for safe workplaces, including psychological safety:

  • It extends protections to all. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act doesn’t address workers in small businesses. This law would cover all employees regardless of business size plus independent contractors, volunteers, interns, fellows, and trainees — and add LGBTQ workers as a protected class.
  • It gives targeted employees a fair chance in court. Case law requires that harassment be “severe or pervasive” to win in court, often unattainable and that groping may not even fall under. The bill outlines what conduct is and is not unlawful to give guidance to the courts who’ve historically excused psychologically abusive conduct, blocking justice, and preventing others from speaking up.
  • It promotes transparency. Acts of discrimination are most often kept private, furthered with agreements that mandate arbitration rather than lawsuits upon starting jobs. The bill would ban mandatory arbitration and non-disclosure agreements upon accepting a job.
  • It restores protections for workers harassed by supervisors. The bill would make holding employers liable for supervisor harassment easier.
  • It assists employers in creating harassment-free workplaces. The bill authorizes research and data collection and gives employers template policies, trainings, and surveys plus best practices.

FAIR (Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal) Act (HR 963)
The FAIR Act defines aims to end predispute arbitration agreements. Arbitration agreements do not favor employees because they deprive them of their rights to the civil justice system.

Paycheck Fairness Act (HR 7)
An effort to address the gender pay gap, the Paycheck Fairness Act holds employers accountable for retaliating against workers who share wage information and places the burden on employers to justify pay gaps. Workers can then sue for wage discrimination.

PRO Act (HR 2474)
The PRO Act will empower workers to negotiate better wages, benefits, and working conditions while preventing employers from interfering in union elections and other workers’ rights violations through penalties. It will also override “right-to-work” laws that prevent unions from collecting dues from the workers they represent. (Unions drive gender equality, higher wages, better benefits, and safer workplaces, but union membership is only 10 percent of the country’s workforce.)

Workplace Violence (HR 1195)
Since the House has passed the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act (HR 1195), workplace violence has only increased according to the American Nurses Association (ANA)’s surveys. It’s now the Senate’s turn to help end the violence now.

Overall, the likelihood of health care workers being exposed to violence is higher than prison guards or police officers – with 1 in 4 nurses having been assaulted at work. And health care settings have only become riskier and more intense from the COVID-19 pandemic. We cannot address workforce shortages without addressing working conditions. They go hand-in-hand.

For years, ANA has been leading the charge to address workplace violence through its #EndNurseAbuse campaign, raising awareness about this issue and pushing for regulatory and legislative solutions. If passed, the bill would require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to develop and enforce specific standards for health care and social service employers to hold them accountable for protecting their employees.

It's time to end

the abuse.

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