Friday, June 19, 2015

Sexual harassment complaints at State Department soar under Clinton, Kerry (nearly tripled)!

The Washington Times ^ | Thursday, June 18, 2015 | Guy Taylor and John Solomon 

In a disclosure that could have political implications for election campaigns, the State Department’s chief watchdog reported Thursday that worker harassment complaints have nearly tripled inside the department during the tenures of Hillary Rodham Clinton and John F. Kerry — but the department still doesn’t have mandatory training for all employees.
“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,” the department’s inspector general warned in an oversight report that reviewed the agency’s Office of Civil Rights.
The report states that formal harassment claims rose from 88 cases in 2011, during Mrs. Clinton’s third year as America’s top diplomat, to 248 in 2014, Mr. Kerry’s second year as secretary. Hundreds more informal complaints were lodged during the same period.
Last year, 43 percent of the new complaints alleged harassment or unfair hirings or promotions, while 38 percent raised sex discrimination or reprisals, the report said.
While the increase in claims is dramatic, OIG officials maintained that it may actually be attributed to growing knowledge and awareness among employees about sexual harassment issues and the procedures for reporting it.
But Thursday’s report also appeared to chide current Secretary of State Kerry and Mrs. Clinton — who served as secretary from January 2009 through early 2013 — for failing to order department managers to require that all employees receive both initial and regularly updated training on such issues.
In addition to roughly 13,000 career foreign service officers, the department employs some 11,000 contractors and more than 45,000 locally hired employees at embassies and diplomatic posts in nearly every corner of the world.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...

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