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DR 345: Letter to the Chairman of the Committee from Nick Radiven, PCS Negotiations Officer
Survey into Bullying and Harassment in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office
PCS is the largest union representing staff
in the FCO. We represent both
An FCO staff survey in 2008 showed that 17%
of staff both home and overseas had experienced some form of bullying and
harassment. FCO senior management were shocked by the high rate (the
This showed that locally employed staff,
and those in more junior positions are more likely to feel they have been
subject to bullying, harassment or discrimination. The reasons given to explain
this were: bias against more junior grades, the
Sir Peter Ricketts, the FCO Permanent Secretary, stated one of the reasons for the high figures (in a message to staff, attached),[2] was that diversity training courses and the more inclusive working environment meant that staff now felt more comfortable raising their concerns, However this is not reflected in any increase in the number of formal grievances being raised with the FCO. Much of the bullying and harassment highlighted in the survey went unreported to the FCO, in the main we believe because staff lack confidence that their complaints will be taken seriously.
Another reason for the high figures reported in the survey according to Sir Peter, was that the FCO had finally got serious about tackling poor performance which he says was likely to highlight personality issues. PCS does not believe this to be the case. In our experience poor performance procedures are themselves sometimes used as a means by managers in more senior grades to harass and bully more junior staff.
The main concern of our members within the FCO is that the underlying reason for bullying and harassment, and one which is not mentioned in the report, is to do with the FCO culture, which as the committee may recall was highlighted as a problem in the 2008 FCO cultural audit, i.e. officers capable of dealing with foreign policy issues within the FCO were more highly prized than good managers. It was rare to find a combination of the two.
Our members believe that not enough is being done to tackle bullying and harassment in the FCO. PCS is currently seeking a meeting with the FCO to discuss this.
PCS thinks that the staff survey and ORC international report paint a very worrying picture of bullying and harassment in the FCO with BME and disabled staff seemingly most vulnerable to unacceptable behaviour.
We believe this is an issue which the Committee may be interested in and we would be happy to speak to the Committee on this matter if they think it would be useful.
22 June 2009 [1] Not published. [2] Not published. |