Domestic abuse becoming a workplace concern

By Joanne Kenen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Domestic abuse may originate in the home but some prominent U.S. business leaders are backing a campaign to raise awareness about its toll in the workplace, which some estimate runs to billions of dollars.

Safe Horizon, a long-established New York-based nonprofit group, has so far recruited 10 big U.S. companies to back its SafeWork 2010 national campaign to examine and help counter the impact that such abuse, usually to women, has on the workplace.

Experts say the problem is often hard to recognize. Women -- and occasionally men - may try to hide their trauma, not just because they feel shame or despair but because they fear it would devalue their professional worth.

Safe Horizon, citing various studies, estimates that 8 million work days are lost each year to domestic violence.

Some research indicates that domestic abuse - whether physical violence or sustained verbal and emotional abuse, control and intimidation - cost businesses $6 billion each year in lost productivity, absenteeism and health bills.

"There really is a cost. It's hard to quantify but you can see it in the organization, and how it impacts you at different times," said Emanuel "Manny" Chirico, chairman and chief executive officer of Phillips-Van Heusen Corp, one of the 10 companies behind SafeWork 2010.

Other companies involved are Allstate Insurance Co, Liz Claiborne Inc, Altria Group, Mary Kay Inc, Avon Products Inc, Kaiser Permanente, Lifetime Entertainment Services, USI Holdings Corp and the law firm Mintz Levin.

Most either have many women customers or women workers.