Proposed Legislation: A Health Care Worker Can Sue for an Abusive Work Environment

The Utah State Legislature is considering whether to enact a measure that would make it illegal for health care facilities, agencies, or providers to subject their employees to abusive work environments or to retaliate against them for reporting abusive environments. The bill, House Bill 224, Health Care Provider Abusive Work Environment Prohibition Act, defines such an environment to be a “workplace where an employee is subjected to abusive conduct that is so severe that it causes physical or psychological harm to the employee.” Articles describing the subcommittee hearing related to the bill were published in the Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune. An audio for the House Health and Human Services Committee hearing can be found on the Utah State Legislature website.