Complaints from public workers for workplace harassment in the Generalitat of Catalonia shots are fired. According to a report from the CGT Catalunya with data from the Government to which it has had access Publichave experienced a 354% growth in the last five years. Specifically, it has gone from the 40 registered in 2020 to 178 since 2024 began. The union organization describes the current prevention mechanisms as “very deficient.”
As the document states, the data show an important change in dynamics starting in 2021, a moment in which a period where between 40 and 50 complaints were registered annually is left behind, to give rise to exponential growth through which They demand “really effective measures.” The person who reports is usually the affected person and only in 2.9% of cases is it a third person, although data on the origin is only available from 2022.
48% of the complaints have been made in the Department of Education and 23% in the Catalan Institute of Health (ICS), followed by 7.25% in Justice and 4.29% in the Interior. The data is much more pronounced this year, where the 71.35% have been in Educationa total of 127 cases, almost the same number as that of the entire Catalan administration last year. Complaints from educational center staff have multiplied by more than five since 2017, and this year only collects data until the beginning of September.
Three out of four are not admitted for processing
The data provided by the Department of the Presidency also reflects that the vast majority of complaints are not admitted for processing. In fact, there is a percentage and absolute increase in non-admissions in recent years, when more complaints are registered. Specifically, it goes from 50% of those admitted in 2019 to 15% in 2023 and 14.6% this year.
CGT sees “worrying“that 72.4% of the complaints have not been admitted for processing, “mainly based on discretionary criteria.” Those that are processed are evaluated by an investigative commission: in the last five years, only has observed signs of harassment in 2.4% of the complaints.
As for the reasons, the data points to three main causes: “list of non-constitutive conduct” (125), “lack of defining elements” (111) and “others” (90). The union is struck by the fact that some reasons for not admitting harassment complaints are “the existence of hostile or harassing behavior has been ruled out”, “lack of purpose” or “no identification data of the possible harasser (PA) is provided”.
The CGT proposals
When looking for the causes that have led the educational system to fall behind the State and to the failure of the PISA tests, the union believes that “an important part” is due to a “vertical and centralist educational model.” He points out two reasons with respect to the other communities: the “chronic underfinancing” of the sector and the increase in the power of the management of “unsupervised” centers. “They hand-pick a large part of their cloisters, another uniqueness that is not found in any other territory of the State,” he criticizes.
Remember that this governance model was popularized by Margaret Thatcher’s government, and “promotes competition between centers for student enrollment and the ‘loyalty’ of teachers to management.” “Paradoxically, some decrees that sought the stability of the cloisters have generated the opposite situation,” he points out. It points to changes in the faculty after denouncing bad practices, since the managements have “power to select related personnel at their discretion.
With the data in hand, the union asks to guarantee the “correct application” of the anti-harassment protocol. Considers it “urgent” that the Secretariat of Administration and Public Function “thoroughly review the criteria for admission to processing, stop revictimize people who are being harassed and do not cover up the harassing people.
Finally ask “return democracy in educational centers” with the “immediate repeal” of the decrees on staff, management and autonomy of centers “that allow management to do and undo in the centers.
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