TIME’S UP, CITY HALL
To borrow a rallying cry from the #MeToo movement, time’s up on the culture of harassment pervading City of Edmonton workplaces. There can be no doubt there is a serious problem with various forms of abuse pervading many of the offices and job sites where the city’s 14,000 full-time employees work.
A detailed set of workplace-complaint data released late Wednesday confirmed what a city auditor’s report found last fall, that nearly 20 per cent of the city’s workforce reported harassment. Of those, 8.7 per cent said the harassment was sexual in nature.
Eleven per cent of City of Edmonton employees said they experienced discrimination, often based on race, age and gender. An astonishing 30 per cent of women in fleet services, community standards, real estate and housing and Edmonton Transit reported experiencing harassment in the last year when they answered the 2016 survey.
The numbers back mounting evidence that far from being a great place to work, Edmonton’s civil servants often toil in toxic environments.
It’s disturbing that little of this would have come to light if not for Edmonton Journal reporter Elise Stolte, who began reporting on harassment and bullying within the City of Edmonton in November after several current and former employees spoke about how intimidation, discrimination, verbal abuse and other mistreatment were driving good workers to quit. After she broke the story, dozens of others reached out to share their experiences.
This week’s workplace harassment data was released after Stolte’s lobbying and an access to information request to improve the city’s accountability and transparency. Officials first argued the information was too sensitive to disclose publicly. (Although, dumping 811 pages of data at 5 p.m. is hardly the most accommodating method of fostering openness.)
The city at least now acknowledges that its workplace needs fixing, and fast. City manager Linda Cochrane has apologized publicly to all employees for failing to take the issue seriously enough. She hired a third party to handle all complaints and help the city set up a new investigation system to replace a flawed internal process where complaints often led to retribution and made things worse.
Ridding city workplaces of harassment must be a top priority. Dysfunctional, demoralizing work environments cost the city, and its taxpayers, in lost productivity, sick leaves and turnover. It’s up to the City of Edmonton as the local government and one of its largest employers to lead by example and ensure that those who serve Edmontonians are treated with fairness and respect.