Originally Posted by
neko
Don't US government employees have very strong protection from sexual harassment, since the government agencies actually have to follow all the rules?
If you inform your human resources department that you have experienced inappropriate touching in the course of carrying out your job duties, don't they legally have to make a record of it and investigate? Even if they eventually determine that it's not their problem and cannot take action, there would still be a record of the complaint.
I wouldn't be surprised if there was some requirement that the number of complaints has to be tabulated and passed up to some agency. If there are a fair number of such complaints, it should show up in the numbers.
I think this may be true since the sexual harrassment rules in this part of the federal government include creating a hostile work environment and/or using sexual touching/threats to coerce job behavior. So far, my only encounter with inappropriate touching was on a personal trip so not a good test case. However, next week I will be on official business traveling thru three airports. Of these, two have already been the subject of anecdotes on FT. So, I may (unhappily) be given the chance to see what my employer says about DHS.