The failures in the sexual harassment complaint channels that were evidenced by the scandal involving Francisco Salazar, right-hand man of Pedro Sanchez in the PSOE and in the Government, have given the PP reasons to present a non-law proposal (PNL) in the Congress of Deputies with the aim of improving said channels in public organizations. This initiative, to which LA RAZÓN has had access, will have to be voted on in the Lower House and places the PSOE in a difficult political dilemma: if it votes in favor, it will be recognizing that the channels fail; If you vote against or abstain, you may be accused of standing idly by in the face of a problem that the victims themselves denounce.
Last year, in the summer, when Salazar was going to be appointed to the PSOE Organization Secretariat that replaced Santos Cerdan was published in eldiario.es that two women who worked with him in Moncloa had denounced him for sexual harassment behavior. The victims used the internal channel of the PSOE, and reported anonymously. Five months later, the two women had to turn to the media again because no one from the party had contacted them and they assured that the complaints had been eliminated from said channel.
In your NLP, which has been registered by Ester Muñoz and will have to be voted on in the commission of the State Pact against Gender Violence, the PP focuses on ensuring that the victims do not go to the official Moncloa channels, but to those of the party. “When it is confirmed that people affected by sexual harassment do not use the available institutional channels and resort to alternative means, a perception of lack of trust, ignorance or insufficient guarantees is projected,” they say. “Procedural ambiguity and lack of operational specificity are factors that can make it difficult to activate the system and sustain the process, especially in situations of strong fear or reprisals or stigmatization,” they add.
For this reason, they ask to reinforce the accessibility and homogeneity of the reporting channels for sexual harassment and to “expressly address the management of anonymous communications to prevent anonymity from becoming an “informal shortcut” without guarantees, or a dead end that does not protect anyone.” To achieve this objective, the PP’s PNL includes a list of five measures that, if approved, would mean that the Congress of Deputies urges the Government to carry them out. It is not mandatory, but it is a clear declaration of intent.
The measures are the creation of a one stop shopa single portal for the entire Administration and that complaints are then directed to the competent body of each department; the approval of common standards in matters such as acknowledgment of receipt, traceability for the complainant and others, which serve to prevent the dispersion of channels and practices; the express regulation of the management of anonymous communications; reinforce the specific training of the personnel in charge of receiving and processing these complaints; and finally, drive performance metrics. This last point would serve to evaluate response times, for example, and to ensure that as much time does not pass as occurred with the victims of the PSOE, among other issues. And all of this would have to be supervised by the State Pact commission, so that an examination of its operation can be carried out.