IG Report: Some members of Congress sexually harassed night-shift custodians
Architect of the Capitol officials accused of creating ‘culture of permissibility’
Members of Congress allegedly sexually harassed night shift custodial staff while they cleaned their offices. Sexual harassment prevention training went off the rails. And the Architect of the Capitol has no unified system for effectively tracking complaints and resolutions of sexual harassment cases.
These are just some of the findings in a recent inspector general’s report on sexual harassment within the AOC in the last decade.
The report, which examined the last ten years, asserts that some AOC leaders have created a culture of permissibility and outlines challenges the agency faces as it attempts to shift toward a culture of a safe and appropriate workplace.
The 53-page report includes data on sexual harassment cases within the agency between October 2008 and October 2018.
Some jurisdictions within the agency refused to cooperate with the OIG probe.
The report states, for example, that the Human Capital Management Division’s refusal to provide details “left the OIG unable to determine the nature of many of the complaints,” because many were described vaguely as “sexual harassment, inappropriate remarks or inappropriate touching.”
The report identified 57 incidents of sexual harassment since 2008. The accused included 24 supervisory-level employees. About 44 percent of the complaints were substantiated.
“Given the size of the AOC’s workforce, we note that the actual number of sexual harassment complaints is relatively low,” the report reads. “There remains, however, the perception that sexual harassment is a pervasive problem within the AOC.”
https://www.rollcall.com/news/congress/architect-of-the-capitol-sexual-harassment-report