In the past five years, three male employees in the municipality of Bergen have lost their jobs due to sexual harassment.
With approximately 18,000 employees, the municipality is the largest employer in Bergen, reported Bergensavisen newspaper. HR director, Bjørg Lædre told the newspaper that she knows of three serious cases of sexual harassment in the workplace during the past five years.
The cases ended with the three men having to leave the positions they’d held in the
municipality. One was dismissed, one worked for three months before he had to quit,
while the last person chose to terminate employment with immediate effect.
‘We have good guidelines for those who need to process an alert, and we have a good procedures for dealing with bullying and harassment,’ Lærre answered to questions about whether the municipality had good notification procedures. She pointed out that such routines can always be improved Lærre believes harassment is under reported, and said the municipality will establish an electronic system to capture all alerts.
75% of municipal employees in Bergen are women.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
