Report substantiates harassment at VT Transportation Agency

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(Host) According to a new report, there were 17 substantiated cases of harassment at the Vermont Transportation Agency over the past three years. And about a third of the cases involved deliberate harassment of women by male employees.

The head of Vermont’s Human Rights Commission says the state needs to do more to prevent employee harassment.

VPR’s Bob Kinzel takes a look at the new report and how the agency is responding.

(Transportation sounds)

(Kinzel) The Agency of Transportation has 65 garage and operations facilities located throughout the state and the report says some of these locations are where harassment cases are most likely to occur.

Transportation Secretary David Dill thinks his agency’s past reliance on a seniority system for promotions is the root cause of many of the harassment cases because he says some people were put in leadership positions who lacked essential management skills. It’s a system that Dill says he’s worked to change.

(Dill) "I can tell you, without question, 10 years ago that was generally the way it was done. Folks with the most seniority, the most years plowing snow, were the ones promoted."

(Kinzel) The report was mandated as part of the settlement of a harassment case several years ago.   

In that settlement, the agency agreed to hire an independent group to investigate allegations of harassment for the next three years.

The initial review found 17 substantiated cases of harassment since 2006. Not all of them were gender based, but about a third of them were. 

The report recommended a series of steps to reduce harassment in the workplace, including additional programs to enhance leadership and communication skills for all managers.  Dill says implementing these programs is a top priority:

(Dill) "I think the problem still exists and I admit that it exists. I’ve said before, it’s much improved over the past 10 years. We have a large group to work with and clearly in the past, not all of those folks have had the leadership and management skills to deal with this kind of stuff."

(Kinzel) The experience of two women at the agency reflects the presence of a male dominated culture.

Janet Worn started working at an offsite facility at the end of 2002 and says she immediately encountered hostility from some of her male co-workers.

(Worn) "It’s like a male territory and they really don’t like women there. There’s a camaraderie. There’s a watching each other’s back. There’s a club."

(Kinzel) Worn says she left the agency in 2006 after a male worker put a nest of wasps in a cabinet that she was scheduled to inspect.

(Worn) "Fortunately, it happened to me early in the morning, so the wasps were quiet and I don’t really freak out about wasps. But that was deliberate, I know that it was. He was the last one to be at the cabinet and had not been in there before."

(Kinzel) Tammy Ellis says she also encountered a male-dominated culture when she went to work at the Transportation Agency 21 years ago.

(Ellis) "There was some feeling among some of them – not all of them – that perhaps it wasn’t a job that women should be doing or could do. So it was always a prove yourself that you can do it. Versus a man coming in was automatically accepted."

(Kinzel) But Ellis’s story has a different outcome. She’s now the administrator of two of the state’s transportation districts, supervising more than 100 employees.  She thinks the atmosphere has changed because many of the older male employees have retired.

(Ellis) "I think some of the younger people have been brought up in a generation, in a time when women do all types of jobs. They’ve grown up in it and it’s just been an accepted part of their raising and their culture. And also I think the agency has become aware of some of the problems of the past and they’ve taken a number of steps to correct those."

(Kinzel) Robert Appel is the head of Vermont’s Human Rights Commission. He thinks the agency needs to quickly address this problem.

(Appel) "Because these problems tend to be so entrenched, particularly in a male-dominated field, it takes a sustained effort to change that culture. It doesn’t happen overnight. In my view, the key to success in that area is a vocal leadership that’s committed to that practice, who holds people accountable to those principles, and then a sustained effort fully supported by management up and down the chain of command."

(Kinzel) And Appel says he’ll consider the new efforts to be a success if there’s a reduction in the number of harassment cases at the agency.

(Appel) "We’re at the beginning of this process of intervention. So I think it remains to be seen. I think VTrans is now on a path designed to promote a more welcoming work environment for all of its employees and all of its customers -meaning of us taxpayers."

(Kinzel) The agency plans to fully implement its new programs in the coming weeks.

For VPR News, I’m Bob Kinzel in Montpelier

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