City hires firms to investigate harassment

Eighty-five complaints from staff to be followed up, officials say

Eighty-five cases of alleged harassment among city employees are under investigation, officials said Thursday.

“That’s our challenge, to do right by all those people ... We’re committed to doing that,” said city manager Linda Cochrane, giving an update to reporters on the number of employees who have come forward with complaints since Postmedia broke the story in November.

Interim third-party consultant Paula Drouin heard from 194 distraught or concerned employees after Postmedia started reporting on how low morale and festering pockets of aggression and harassment were driving people from the City of Edmonton’s workforce.

Of those, 22 complaints have been referred to Deloitte and 63 cases are being tackled by Drouin and city officials.

In addition, Drouin is summarizing all the interviews in a confidential manner to guide the city’s next steps.

Edmonton signed a longer contract effective Wednesday with companies Deloitte LLP and Cenera to investigate individual cases and help reform the culture at Edmonton Tower and City Hall.

Edmonton also seconded Wade King, director of safe disclosure and human rights at the University of Alberta, for one year to help transform the way the city handles these allegations.

King said changes have to include a way to circumvent the traditional hierarchy of power — where going to someone other than a supervisor with a problem is seen as OK, not insubordination.

“Power is a real thing,” he said, after speaking with Cochrane to reporters.

“When people have mortgages to pay and kids to feed, they don’t necessarily want to rock the boat of power,” he said.

That means people need other ways to report and stand up for themselves and other victims.

King used to work at the city, first for Edmonton Transit, then for the office of diversity and inclusion. He said the diversity in the city’s workforce has significantly increased since then.

That’s likely part of why harassment and discrimination complaints seem to be increasing, he said. It’s natural to see conflict, but that needs to be recognized and addressed. “We really need to work on that inclusion piece.”

During the Postmedia investigation, city employees said they were suffering from sexism and aggression, sleepless nights, debilitating anxiety and dysfunctional team environments.

Employees said they were afraid to report harassment, even when it was destroying their health, because those in authority over them would know they complained.

The city’s past process involved filing a written complaint, which went directly to the person be- ing complained about. Employees could be left working in an even more toxic environment for months.

On Thursday, Cochrane said since November, she’s learned officials need to change their expectations around confidentiality. Anonymous complaints must be looked into, especially when there are multiple ones.

But beyond that, she said she wants to wait with an open mind for recommendations from Deloitte LLP. The Deloitte report will go to city council in late spring before administration decides what to do.

Cenera has a core team of five people specialized in workplace investigations who operate out of Calgary and Edmonton and have been involved in human resources

When people have mortgages to pay and kids to feed, they don’t necessarily want to rock the boat of power.

since 1996.

Cochrane also commented on the city’s recently disclosed harassment data, which highlights the most problematic branches. It suggested many men aren’t aware of the harassment being witnessed or experienced by women colleagues.

In the community standards branch, for example, 29 per cent of women who responded to a 2016 survey said they witnessed discrimination or harassment against another person at work within the last 12 months.

That number was just 12 per cent for men. Thirty per cent of the women said they were harassed.

Cochrane said she agrees the data suggests a major blind spot.

“The education piece is part of our biggest challenge,” she said.