AUGUSTA – Businesses should develop policies on what to do when a worker commits domestic abuse on company time or when a worker is being victimized on the job, the governor and others said Monday.

If more batterers heard their bosses say domestic abuse is not OK, they’d be less likely to commit the crime on the job, said Maine Labor Commissioner Laura Fortman said. She said that would save businesses thousands of dollars, including accident reduction and lost time from work.

The Maine Department of Labor is recommending businesses develop domestic abuse policies. It did this after concluding a study in which 152 Maine batterers, all men, were interviewed. Sixty-eight percent said work posters and brochures warning about domestic abuse would have helped them avoid committing the crime.

Seventy-four percent said they had easy access to their partner’s workplace, with 21 percent reporting they contacted their partner at work in violation of a protective order. Many used company time and equipment to do so, Fortman said. Fifty-seven percent of the batterers were using company phones or vehicles to check up on their partner, to threaten, or to show remorse or anger, said Ellen Ridley of Family Crisis Services in Cumberland.

Employer Sue Strasenburg, who runs a Westbrook wallpapering and painting company, said she had a worker whose boyfriend was abusive. Despite a restraining order, he followed her to work and harassed her on the job. That illustrates “that domestic violence doesn’t stay home” when a victim or abuser goes to work, she said.

The state is helping in several ways, Gov. John Baldacci said Monday. Attorney General Steve Rowe has developed a domestic violence policy for employers. The Department of Labor will host classes on workplace response to domestic violence and, later this year, the Department of Public Safety will hold a one-day program on domestic violence issues for Maine businesses, he said.

“Domestic abuse is a serious problem in Maine,” and the 4,813 domestic violence assaults reported in 2002 were only the tip of the iceberg, Baldacci said..

It’s important for employers to have domestic abuse policies before a crisis emerges, Fortman said. When she interviewed some of the batterers, “I was surprised how many said they would have appreciated some sort of intervention.”

“Intervention doesn’t mean having to fire someone,” she said. It could be as simple as laying out expectations in the workplace that does not tolerate domestic abuse, “and what the consequences are.”

[email protected]