Job Description

The NYC Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) protects public health and the environment by supplying clean drinking water, collecting and treating wastewater, and reducing air, noise, and hazardous materials pollution. DEP is the largest combined municipal water and wastewater utility in the country, with nearly 6,000 employees. DEP delivers more than 1.1 billion gallons per day of the highest quality drinking water to 8.5 million NYC residents and more than 1 million people in Upstate New York and has a wastewater conveyance and treatment system capable of processing over 1.3 billion gallons of wastewater per day to protect the environment and the city’s surrounding waterways.

The mission of DEP’s Office of Environmental Health and Safety (OEHS) is to ensure that DEP and its facilities sustain effective environmental, health and safety compliance programs and to promote a safe and healthy workplace for all DEP employees.

The Office of Environmental, Health & Safety seeks to hire an Environmental, Health and Safety Incident/Workplace Violence Investigator located in Flushing, New York. Under general direction, but with latitude for independent action and judgment, the selected candidate will be responsible for the following:

1) As a lead Investigator or part of an investigation team conduct investigations into incidents such as assault or physical threat, verbal or written threats, repeated intimidation, or other threatening activity in accordance with the protocol and procedures described in the DEP Workplace Violence Prevention Program. After completing the investigation, prepare a written report which should include the following components: introduction/Complaint description; background; (e.g., organization list of involved parties) allegations/Statement of policy violated; summary of scope of investigation; findings; and a discussion of findings and conclusions. Conduct investigations of claims by DEP employees received through the Employee Concerns Hotline or other means where an employee: (i) has been given a direction, which if followed, would cause, or constitute a violation of an environmental, health or employee health and safety regulations; or (ii) has been retaliated against by a supervisor for reporting an environmental, health and safety concern. Conduct investigations of accidents, incidents events, near misses, injuries, releases involving or impacting DEP staff, contractors, public and property. After completing the investigation, prepare a written report that should include the following components: Incident Summary; background; (e.g. process, organization, scope of activities under investigation) detailed incident description; incident analysis and applicable regulatory requirements and industry standards.

2) Provide technical support to the EHS Reporting and Investigations Unit by answering all calls or emails from employees submitted through the EHS Employee Concerns Hotline and ensure that complaints are investigated within 90 days. Conduct employee training sessions or workshops covering such topics as Agency’s Incident Investigation Policy, Workplace Violence Prevention Policy, and/or Agency Audit Information & Incident Management Information System.

3) Contribute to the development and implementation of EHS incident investigation and workplace violence prevention standards to support program goals

4) Provide administrative and program management support in the following ways:
(a) Answer and assess calls and/or emails from employees that are submitted through the EHS Employee Concerns Hotline or WPV email/intake system and ensure that any assigned investigations are completed within 90 days.
(b) Prepare meeting materials for the Workplace Violence Committee and Workplace Violence Prevention Labor-Management meetings.
(c) Conduct employee training sessions or workshops covering such topics as Agency’s Incident Investigation Policy, Workplace Violence Prevention Policy, Executive Order 85
d) Assist with the development of a quality assurance procedure/system for the Workplace Violence case management system
(e) Perform regular quality assurance review of all Workplace Violence Prevention cases that are entered by investigators in the Case Management system (CRM) for accuracy and thoroughness.
(f) Conduct a review of the agency’s existing workplace violence prevention program document and compare it to ANSI/ASIS INV1.-2015 (Investigations) and ASIS/SHRM WVPI-I.1-2011 to determine what revisions should be made to the program document to meet the standards’ requirements.

The selected candidate will be expected to produce structured, clear, thorough, yet concise written investigation reports for workplace violence complaints. Reports are sent to Senior Management. The selected candidate will demonstrate the ability to conduct thorough investigations, perform effective professional interviews, pay attention to and identify details necessary for a successful investigation and to complete written investigation reports within forty-five (45) days.


The position will report to a Director within the Office of Environmental, Health & Safety.

Qualifications

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university, including or supplemented by 30 credits in the eh biological and/or physical sciences, and four years of satisfactory full-time experience performing inspections to assure compliance with pertinent laws, rules and regulations governing the areas of food, drugs, and general environmental sanitation, eighteen months of which must have been in an administrative, managerial or executive capacity, or in supervising staff performing food, drug and general environmental sanitation inspectors or related work; or

2. An associate degree from an accredited college or university, including or supplemented by 12 credits in the biological and/or physical sciences, and six years of satisfactory full-time experience as described in question "1" above; or

3. Education and/or experience equivalent to "1" or "2" above. However all candidates must have at least 60 credits from an accredited college or university, including 12 credits in the biological and/or physical sciences, and at least two years of experience as a public health sanitarian, including or supplemented by eighteen months of experience in an administrative, managerial, executive or supervisory capacity as described in "1" or "2" above.