Last week, more Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) employees reported their experiences of inappropriate behavior to the FNV trade union. On Tuesday, the union also published troubling results from an opinion poll on the subject.
According to FNV Vice President Katie Jung, “it has been raining additional reports” since the results were published. On Tuesday, FNV published the results of an “exploratory study” that included 101 VWS employees, 95 of whom answered all the questions.
The majority of people who participated in the survey indicated that they had experienced one or more forms of inappropriate behavior, especially by managers. This would mainly include bullying and intimidation.
Within 24 hours after the survey results came out, another 150 people completed the survey, FNV reports. The union said 16 of those participants indicated they wanted to be called back regarding their “employment status.”
“We feel responsible so we reported this to the Labor Inspectorate,” says Vice President Jung. “We expect this matter to be treated with the same urgency as an industrial accident.”
The Labor Inspectorate notes that all reports are carefully evaluated. Accordingly, a decision can be made to inspect.
The Ministry initiated the investigation
Following FNV’s letter, the Ministry of Health, Social Welfare and Sport launched an investigation into safety and social interaction standards at the Ministry.
“When there is cross-border behaviour, we must and want to address it. Every VWS employee should be able to feel safe and accepted,” said Marcelis Boereboom, Secretary General of VWS.
The Ministry calls on employees who have been exposed to inappropriate behavior to report it. The ministry added in a statement that this could be done confidentially.