Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell continued his campaign against domestic violence and sexual assault Monday by chatting up his efforts to members of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. He wants businesses to take an active role in promoting his "Choose Respect" campaign.
"Domestic violence and sexual assault are invisible marauders in the workplace," Parnell told the business leaders assembled to hear him speak over lunch, adding that employers have a role to play in recognizing and stopping Alaska's epidemic of abuse against women and children.
Aside from the staggering amount of taxpayer dollars that go to deal with the consequences of abuse, Parnell told the crowd that abuse affects the workplace in other ways, too. "Think unexplained absences or inability to concentrate. Think lost productivity. Sick leave. Medical care, mental health services, chronic health problems," he said.
The governor urged companies and business leaders to ensure they support abuse victims in the work place instead punishing them or causing them to lose their job for performance issues that may be abuse-related. He asked them to link his "Choose Respect" website from their homepage, and to also include resources and links to agencies involved in helping women and children in crisis.
Although determining the financial toll of interpersonal violence on the workplace is "impossible to quantify," Parnell did offer some estimates: Nationally, sexual violence against adults costs $127 billion per year; intimate partner violence -- $19 billion per year; indirect costs of all child abuse nationally -- $90 billion per year.
Alaska needs to change its tolerance level for abuse against women and children, he said, and likened the need to transform people's thinking to the social shifts that have in the past taken place with respect to people's opinions about littering, smoking in public and drunk driving.
"I'm calling on you to help change Alaska's social norms," he said.
Contact Jill Burke at jill(at)alaskadispatch.com