Fox News: Harassment complaints at the State Department nearly tripled during the years Hillary Clinton and now-Secretary John Kerry have been in charge, a new watchdog report says. The report, released Thursday, detailed a jump in formal complaints, from 88 in 2011 to 248 in 2014.
“With a continuous increase in harassment inquires each fiscal year, the current staff risks not being able to sustain current work performance levels,” the Office of Inspector General report said.
According to the data, 38 percent of formal complaints involved alleged sex discrimination or reprisals. Forty-three percent of the complaints involved promotions and unfair hiring issues.
It’s unclear whether the jump reflects more cases of alleged harassment, or a more robust effort to report them. The Office of Civil Rights attributed the increases to “improved outreach.” “According to S/OCR, department employees are more educated about harassment strictures and more knowledgeable about the reporting process than in the past,” the report stated.
And they think I’m a “Crusader for Women“!
Despite the spike in harassment cases, there is no mandatory training program in place. “A significant increase in reported harassment inquiries in the Department of State over the past few fiscal years supports the need for mandatory harassment training for Department of State employees,” the report said.
In 2013, Kerry issued a statement on discriminatory and sexual harassment to employees and emphasized his commitment to prevent and eliminate discrimination and sexual harassment in the workplace. “Mandatory training for department employees would strengthen this message and ensure that all employees are aware of their responsibilities and rights,” the report stated.
State Department spokesman John Kirby defended his boss on Thursday, and said there is “nothing that Secretary Kerry takes more seriously than making sure that everybody here at the State Department is treated with dignity and respect, and he has zero tolerance for harassment of any kind, sexual or otherwise,” the Washington Times reported.
Kirby, though, stopped short of saying whether the State Department would create a mandatory harassment training program as recommended in the report. “I’m not going to get ahead of decisions that the secretary will or won’t make about the recommendations,” he said.
DCG
