Companies show they care

Gloria Holmes-Mason tried to get away from her abusive husband again and again.

She was in the process of divorcing him, but he was still abusing her when she finally got the help she credits with saving her life -- at work in a Downers Grove hospital.

"You don't wake up wanting to get hit," she said. "No one wants that."

Employers are stepping up their efforts to help workers in abusive relationships, doing everything from threat assessments to relocating those in danger.

At Verizon Wireless, a mother worried about her daughter's safety sent an e-mail to executives; the company moved her to another part of the country, said spokeswoman Debra Lewis.

Jerry Rossi, senior executive vice president, group president at TJX Cos., said the company has not only moved employees who were in danger, it's worked with state and federal authorities to give them new identities.

Harman International, an audio and electronics company based in Washington, D.C., started its program in 2001 after 24-year employee Teresa Duran was fatally run over by her ex-husband in the parking lot of her apartment building.

"It was brutal," said Lynn Harman, corporate counsel at the company, who has done legal work with abused women.

With help from the Family Violence Prevention Fund in San Francisco, a nonprofit group, the company developed a policy to help employees in violent relationships and rolled out companywide mandatory training. It emphasizes recognizing when employees are in danger and referring them to an expert who can help.

Lynn Harman, who is the daughter of Sidney Harman, the company's executive chairman and former CEO, says she's been thrilled with the results.

"I cannot for the life of me understand why every corporation in America doesn't do this," Harman said. "It's inexpensive. It's simple. The sense of well-being employees have knowing their companies care enough to do this is not something you can buy. After every training, we get thank-you notes from employees."

Setting up the program cost $125,000. "Peanuts," she said.

Douglas Leach, coordinator for employer outreach programs at Blue Shield of California Foundation, an independent grant-making agency funded by Blue Shield of California, leads training sessions across the state and emphasizes how abuse can lead to poor work performance.

Blue Shield of California reassessed its policies after one of its call center workers was murdered by her husband in 1996.

Employers need to know "if they can help victims keep their jobs, they might be saving a life right there," Leach said.

For Holmes-Mason, whose struggle to leave her husband included living in her car and times when she kept the house cold and dark to numb herself, the abuse hurt her job performance. Her husband would harass her at her job in lab processing and technology at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove. She started coming to work late, calling in sick a lot.

"My boss said, 'I don't want to write you up, you've been a good worker,' " Holmes-Mason said. "I didn't want to talk about it. She started seeing some of the bruises on me."

Her boss encouraged her to go to a training session on domestic violence at the hospital. She met clinical social worker Sarah Katula, whom she credits with saving her life.

"She didn't make me feel bad for what I was going through," Holmes-Mason said. "She said, 'If you feel the need to go back, you can go back, but I'm always there for you.' I never went back."

That was four years ago.

Katula also connected Holmes-Mason with a local shelter and helped her with practical matters, like writing an outline of what she needed to say in court.

"You can get out," Holmes-Mason said. "My life is so much better. I finally get the normal problems I always wanted, like how to pay the bills."

States have various laws to help victims of domestic abuse.

Companies should know what those laws entail, experts say. Victims have won claims and received damage awards when employers haven't responded appropriately, said Robin Runge, a Washington-D.C. based attorney who has represented victims.

For example:

•Eleven states allow companies to get protective orders, Runge said.

•Twenty-eight states have laws that extend unemployment insurance protection to people who leave their jobs because of domestic violence.

•Eight states have laws that grant leaves to workers who must miss work for reasons relating to abuse.

•For a summary of state law, see legalmomentum.org/legalmomentum/files/employmentrightsguideau gust2007.pdf.