The 15 questions that the director of the CNIO will have to clarify about workplace harassment

Some of these accusations referred to “racist”, humiliating or contemptuous attacks towards those affected. Now, the main opposition party asks what knowledge the Government had about these complaints at the National Cancer Research Center, what measures the Ministry of Science and Innovation has adopted as a supervisory body to investigate these complaints of workplace harassment, whether the Executive has been aware of the complaints that directly accuse the director of the CNIO of impose arbitrary criteria and violate fundamental rights of workers or if the Government considers that María Blasco’s management at the head of the research center meets the required ethical and labor standards.

Furthermore, in their battery of questions, the popular ones want to know if the CNIO has adequate internal protocols to prevent, detect and manage cases of workplace harassment and abuse of power; whether these action measures have been activated in the cases reported by the workers and also hopes that it will be specified how many cases have been reported against the director of this scientific organization, what support the Government has offered to the complainants in these legal processes or what measures is being adopted to ensure a harassment-free work environment in all public and private research centers.

The parliamentary questions of the Popular Party also mention hiring policies and modification of working conditions at the CNIO. In this sense, it is questioned what measures will be implemented to avoid unilateral modifications of the contractual conditions of the employees of the centers financed by public administrations, if it is considered that these complaints of harassment and abuse of power have affected the reputation and operation of the National Center. of Oncological Research and what provisions the Ministry of Science will take to protect the integrity and prestige of research centers in Spain.

Appearance

On the other hand, the director of the CNIO has called for this Tuesday a press conference after the accumulation of information that have been published in recent months about his management, such as the purchase of works of art and the creation of the CNIO Arte organization, in charge of the acquisition of these artistic pieces, which then traveled around half the world with trips at the expense of the treasury. from the center.

Other information was also published, such as the fact that the scientific director of the center has been receiving a bonus of 30,000 euros per year for several years, as was revealed in an audit carried out at the organization and that ABC revealed.

Sources at the center did not know what information Blasco would provide this Tuesday in his appearance before the media. The call from the director of the CNIO was the most repeated comment among workers and researchers during the day on Monday. Most of them assured this newspaper that the only thing they were waiting for was “the announcement of his resignation.”