under virtuous communication, the persistence of denial and impunity – CGT Travail Emploi Vocational Training

CGT – SUD

We are approaching November 25, international day against violence against women.

Like every yearour union organizations are calling on agents to take up this issue and take this fight to the streets and to our places of life and work.

And like every yearour Ministry will certainly come up with yet another insignificant communication plan on this occasion – let’s bet on a screening of a film labeled ‘feminist’ in Duquesne, a reminder to agents of the meager video awareness raising that they can follow on the subject in case where it tempts them, or a little statement from our Minister on the fact that no, the great cause of the two five-year terms has not been forgotten, let’s be reassured!

For our part, we believe in facts and actions, not in wishful thinking and window dressing.

And in fact, we note that the positioning of our administration on the subject is unfortunately still far from its major declarations of principle.

The very recent case of a contractual colleague who was the victim of sexual violence at the hands of a control unit manager is desperately edifying. Faced with a real textbook case of sexual harassment, the recognition of which should have posed no difficulty, our HR department preferred to opt for denial and minimization of the facts by qualifying them as simple “inappropriate behavior”; undoubtedly out of concern to avoid having to severely sanction the author of these actions. Thus the manager in question was created a tailor-made position on another site, without going through the disciplinary CAP box..

HR managers in the private sector know this parade well: reclassify harassment as simple “ inappropriate behavior “, is to bury the file without making waves, while giving the illusion that the situation was well taken care of by notifying the perpetrator of a minor sanction. For recognition of their damage and the preservation of their working conditions, the victims will return. And it is clear that this is the strategy adopted to date by our Ministry, which is supposed to set an example on the subject.

This example is particularly scandalous and distressing, but in line with the administration’s attitude on the issue of sexist and sexual violence against women for years:

• The situations are minimized;
• The agents, including management, are not or only minimally trained on these subjects,
• This generates tolerance, indulgence and impunity for the perpetrators;
• And for the victims, indifference, incomprehension, disregard for their rights, even ostracization and rejection from the work collective.

Very often, sexist remarks made towards colleagues are swept under the rug by the hierarchical superior under the pretext that such and such “is like that”, “says that to laugh” or that one should not “badly say it”. take “. To avoid reframing and reminding the rules, and/or due to lack of training, department managers prefer to let colleagues endure intolerable words in the workplace!

There is no shortage of examples in which the administration does not act as it should, but shifts or buries the “problem” (see box).

For the most serious casesa change of position will be offered to the perpetrator (especially if he is part of management), without affecting his disciplinary record.

For situations involving sexist behaviorthe administration opts for inertia while waiting for the war-weary victims to remain silent or leave their posts.

And if by chance certain managements decide to implement the administrative investigation provided for by the decree of May 26, 2021, they will have to manage without the support of the HR department, which declines requests for support from local managements , although it is provided for by the texts.

In recent years, we have repeatedly contacted the Ministry of Labor on the question of VSST : those that we have to know as part of the exercise of our missions, those that we undergo as agents of the Ministry.

We have established diagnostics (using questionnaires for agents), reported situations, identified needs : appropriate training worthy of the name (and not 2 hours of awareness raising by videoconference), resources, exemplary sanctions when the facts are proven.

We wrote in an open letter to the Ministry of Labor in 2017 that the situation regarding VSST was “intolerable and should no longer be tolerated”.

It is clear that the end of the tunnel is still far away for the victims. Things are making little or no progress!

Today, rather than listing for the umpteenth time our demands known to all on the subject, we ask that our union organizations be received as quickly as possible by the Minister of Labor. During the meeting of the Minister of Labor and the ministry’s trade union organizations on October 5, he was questioned on this question, he simply brushed aside and sent the concrete file mentioned to the HR department.

Real measures must be taken to put an end to inertia, so that such situations do not happen again!

We call on colleagues to swell the ranks of all the demonstrations planned around November 25, throughout France: www.grevefeministe.fr

Download our leaflet HERE