Latest news with #workplacebullying
Malay Mail
20-07-2025
- Health
- Malay Mail
Verbal threats, mockery now classified as bullying in Health Ministry's upcoming Oct guidelines
KUALA LUMPUR, July 20 — Ministry of Health (MOH) said that the use of hurtful language is among the forms of workplace bullying to be addressed in its new guidelines, set to be launched this October. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad was quoted saying that the Guidelines for Managing Bullying, which apply to government clinics and hospitals, define verbal bullying to include insults, threats, mockery and humiliation. 'The guidelines specify that the use of hurtful, insulting, threatening, mocking or humiliating language towards an individual constitutes verbal bullying in the workplace,' he was quoted saying by Berita Harian. 'While specific words are not listed, any use of offensive language — particularly if repeated — can be considered bullying, subject to investigation and the context of the incident.' Dzulkefly had on July 12 announced the guidelines were complete and would be launched in conjunction with World Mental Health Month, before being distributed to all MOH healthcare facilities. The guidelines aim to support the psychosocial wellbeing of MOH staff, strengthen internal reporting systems like the MyHelp platform, and promote a safer, more harmonious workplace. They also outline steps for recognising, preventing and addressing workplace bullying, including reporting procedures and intervention measures for individuals and institutions. The MyHelp Portal, launched on October 1, 2022, allows online complaints to be submitted, with investigations completed within 15 working days depending on the case's complexity. This comes as the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) and activist group Hartal Doktor Kontrak urged for such a guideline to be formalised. In Parliament in February, Dzulkefly said house officers were often the main victims of workplace bullying, which needed to be curbed by improving the working environment.
Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- Times
Moët Hennessy whistleblower was told she needed ‘anti-seduction' training
A female executive at Moët Hennessy is suing the champagne giant after she was allegedly told she needed 'anti-seduction' training and was 'gagging for it' during a meeting. Staff at the wines and spirits arm of the French luxury giant LVMH, have reported a 'toxic culture' of alleged sexual harassment, bullying and intimidation and claimed that a 'boys' club' mentality reigns in the company. The claims emerged after a case brought last autumn by Maria Gasparovic, a self-styled whistleblower who was sacked for 'gross misconduct' before making public allegations that executives had subjected her to sexual harassment, gender discrimination, denigration and unfair dismissal. The company, whose brands include Dom Pérignon, Veuve Clicquot and Moët & Chandon champagne, as well as Glenmorangie whisky and Hennessy cognac, has rejected her allegations. It filed a defamation suit against Gasparovic, formerly chief of staff for the Moët Hennessy global head of distribution, after she posted her claims on LinkedIn. A dozen people connected to the company have since come forward, saying there had been a series of executive departures 'related to a toxic workplace environment where bullying and mismanagement were problems', the Financial Times reported. At least 20 staff at the business's headquarters went on long-term sick leave last year and many employees complained of stress and bullying, the newspaper said. At least four other female employees at the Paris headquarters had reported bullying and harassment before leaving the group, it added. 'Gossip and rumours were rife at Moët Hennessy, while a 'boys' club' mentality was common,' one source is reported to have said. 'One former employee described how their boss would 'scream at people like it was a fashion house in the 1990s — except we are in 2025. That behaviour is no longer acceptable.' Philippe Schaus, Moët & Chandon's chief executive, was replaced last November, after Gasparovic's dismissal, amid slumping sales for the drinks group. Gasparovic reported her harassment allegations along with a fellow whistleblower to Moët Hennessy's corporate human resources director in February 2024. She said her boss had threatened to present a case for her dismissal if she did not comply with certain demands, including a course in 'anti-seduction training', she claims. That was supposedly necessary because Schaus and a Moët Hennessy client reportedly claimed she had sought to seduce them, with the client describing her as 'gagging for it' in a meeting. Several women in the company allegedly complained that they were the subject of unfounded rumours about affairs with men at the company. When one woman told the business about rumours circulating that she had received work opportunities after sleeping with a male executive, she was told by her HR manager 'to get used' to it, the report said. After Gasparovic posted her allegations on LinkedIn, causing a stir in the French business world, the company sent a cease and desist letter. The letter, seen by the Financial Times, said: 'You cannot present yourself as a whistleblower when you have exploited for your personal benefit, for several years, the same facts that you publicly claim to have reported.' The company's chief operating officer, Mark Stead, who is in a relationship with Gasparovic, was dismissed for allegedly abusing expenses after he accompanied Gasparovic to her meetings, it is believed. Bernard Arnault, the majority owner of LVMH and until recently France's richest person, brought his third son, Alexandre, 33, into the drinks division as No2 in February. After long registering lavish profits, the group has suffered from a slowdown due to the tariff war with China against cognac, changing drinking habits and extreme weather. French business media have reported that Moët Hennessy continued to ship champagne and cognac to Russia, via intermediaries, despite saying it had suspended sales there in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The company has denied wrongdoing. Gasparovic's suit against her former employer is expected to be heard in court later this year. Bernard Arnault controls LVMH ABDULLAH FIRAS/ABACA/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK Jean-Jacques Guiony, chairman and chief executive of Moët Hennessy, responded with an attack on Gasparovic, saying she was 'driven by personal ambition that led her to believe she could claim a position that did not exist at the time and was eventually not opened due to budgetary constraints'. In a letter to staff, the head of the LVMH division added: 'Her behaviour, following that decision, changed drastically: she claimed to have been subject to sexist discrimination, she began making comments and sharing posts that can be construed as bullying and these were directed to employees and clients.' 'Maria Gasparovic chose to exploit a situation that she herself created — one rooted in her personal agenda and which is now being used in an attempt to justify financial compensation. After her strategy failed, she attempted to invoke whistleblower status, again manipulating the systems that are intended to protect,' he said. Stead is separately suing the business for wrongful dismissal and alleges he was actually fired in reprisal for supporting a whistleblower's claims. He declined to comment to the FT.
Irish Times
09-06-2025
- Business
- Irish Times
Baker who alleged he was subjected to racial slur in Polish wins €4,000
A baker has won €4,000 over being subjected to a racial slur in Polish by a colleague nearly six years ago. The award was made in a set of rulings published on Monday regarding a workplace dispute that arose in the spring of 2019. The worker, a black French man, alleged he was being bullied by predominantly Polish colleagues at an unidentified food and drinks company 'because he does not speak Polish'. The Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) rejected various complaints of his alleging discrimination in breach of the Employment Equality Act 1998 on the grounds of race and disability. However, it found against the employer in respect of the racial slur incident in June 2019. READ MORE The worker gave evidence at a series of adjudication hearings, saying he 'felt threatened and isolated at work' during a period in early 2019 and felt he was suffering discrimination because he was 'black and did not speak Polish'. The worker said 'nothing was done' after he complained to his bosses in February 2019. The company's position was that it facilitated the worker by changing the start time of his shift and later changing his work location. It had also ordered his Polish colleagues to translate all work-related conversations to English, the tribunal was told. The complainant's further evidence was that after his transfer to the new work location he was subject to 'a particularly offensive and derogatory racial slur which was conveyed to him in Polish' on June 23rd, 2019. The worker who made the remark – which was not recorded in the tribunal's published decisions – left the employment the following day. The worker told the tribunal he 'did not know what it meant' until it was explained to him by a third party some months later, after which he filed his second complaint with the WRC. A head chef who gave evidence on behalf of the employer said 'nobody was subject to racial abuse' and that the workplace has 'zero tolerance' for bullying and harassment. The employer's position was that the complainant 'did not react well' when performance issues were raised with him. 'His response was to claim that he was being discriminated against and racially abused,' the company's representative submitted, adding that the firm had 'gone to great lengths' to support him. Adjudicator Andrew Heavey noted the accusation was 'vehemently denied' in the company's investigation process. However, he accepted the sworn evidence of the worker on the balance of probabilities. He wrote that despite the 'bona fides' and 'significant efforts' made by the employer to support the worker and address his complaints, it was still vicariously liable for the actions of its staff. He found the complainant was 'harassed on the race ground' on or about June 23rd, 2019, and directed the company to pay €4,000 in compensation for the discrimination. He rejected all other claims by the worker under the Employment Equality Act. Mr Heavey anonymised his decisions on the basis 'information of a sensitive nature relating to the complainant', which he believes 'deserves privacy'. He noted that when he held his final hearing into the claims last November, the complainant remained an employee of the firm and there had been 'no further issues'.
CBC
05-06-2025
- Business
- CBC
Manitoba cabinet minister harassed college employee in past job, external investigation concluded
Recently appointed federal cabinet minister Rebecca Chartrand harassed a former employee at Winnipeg's Red River College Polytechnic over a period of several months in 2019, according to an external investigation commissioned by the college and conducted by a Winnipeg law firm. Chartrand, elected in April as the Liberal member of Parliament for the northern Manitoba riding of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski, was appointed by Prime Minister Mark Carney in May as the minister of northern and Arctic affairs and the minister responsible for the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency. According to documentation provided to CBC News in April — but first reported this week by Canadaland — Chartrand was the subject of a harassment investigation during the final months of her two-year stint as executive director of Indigenous strategy for RRC Polytech, a Winnipeg post-secondary institution with annual enrolment of approximately 21,000 students. In a complaint filed with RRC Polytech under its discrimination and harassment policy in September 2019, a former college employee claimed she was "targeted, undermined, bullied and harassed" by Chartrand over a period of eight months. The harassment took the form of threatening the employee's position, undermining her work and her management of other staff, interfering with her career, negatively impacting her reputation, increasing her workload and imposing unreasonable deadlines, according to the complaint. In a letter dated Dec. 19, 2019, RRC Polytech human resources director Curtis Craven informed the former employee that investigators with the Winnipeg law firm Rachlis Neville LLP substantiated the harassment complaint. The law firm found Chartrand's conduct "amounted to personal harassment in that over a period of time, the manner in which she engaged with you and the approach used to assign work and manage your performance constituted conduct which was severe," Craven said in the letter. "Such conduct could reasonably cause an individual to be humiliated or intimidated and was repeated, and had a lasting, harmful effect on you," he wrote. However, "given that Ms. Chartrand is no longer with the college, the college will not be taking any further corrective actions arising from this investigation," Craven's letter said. Chartrand was employed by RRC Polytech from June 2017 until December 2019, when she resigned, college spokesperson Emily Doer said in a statement. Chartrand was not available to speak about her time at the college, spokesperson Kyle Allen said this week. "Minister Chartrand is committed to fostering a healthy work environment for all persons in the workplace, characterized by collegiality and mutual respect," Allen said in a statement. RRC Polytech also declined to address Chartrand's time at the post-secondary institution. "In keeping with privacy legislation and college policy, we do not discuss personnel matters regarding current or former employees," Doer said in a statement. 'Months of psychological warfare': former employee The former college employee who filed the harassment complaint left RRC Polytech in 2020. In an interview, she said she had no intention of disclosing the investigation until Chartrand was nominated by the Liberal Party as its candidate for Churchill-Keewatinook Aski. The employee, whom CBC News is not identifying out of concerns about the potential impact on her employment, said she first attempted to contact Liberal Party officials about her experience but was unsuccessful. "I really did just want to forget about this and move on," said the former employee, who describes herself as a Liberal supporter. "I was voting for Mark Carney. I did not want what happened to me to happen to anybody in Ottawa. I didn't want Mark Carney to be hurt by any further actions, whether something of this nature ever happened again." Liberal Party spokesperson Jenna Ghassabeh said the party does not comment on the specifics of the candidate vetting process. "Canadians expect all political parties to do their due diligence on all prospective candidates, and the Liberal Party of Canada has a rigorous process to appropriately conduct such reviews," Ghassabeh said in a statement. The former RRC Polytech employee said she ultimately contacted several media outlets about her experience after Chartrand made social media comments relating to her own time at the college. The former employee said she came to know Chartrand in 2015, when the now-MP made an earlier run for office in Churchill-Keewatinook Aski. She came in second in that race to the NDP's Niki Ashton, who Chartrand then defeated in April's federal election. The former employee said she left another job to work under Chartrand at the college and had a good working relationship until 2019, when a nine-page survey was prepared to determine the needs of incoming students in the Indigenous studies program. The former employee said the survey was amended to include questions about drug and alcohol use, against the recommendations of an external consultant. The college did not disclose that the responses to these questions might determine whether respondents would receive financial assistance, the former employee said. The survey was withdrawn following complaints from prospective students and prompted an apology from Chartrand, according to a Global News story in 2019. The former employee said after she advised against including the questions in the survey, what had been a positive working relationship with Chartrand deteriorated into harassment. "It was like months of psychological warfare," the former employee said. "I've just tried to move on from all of my own personal grief and trauma around this because it has impacted me personally and professionally, and I wanted to just forget about it and move on. But it hasn't gone away." In a Facebook post on election night, a former resident of Churchill-Keewatinook Aski named Kyle Ross drew attention to the RRC Polytech survey issued during Chartrand's time at the college. In a since-deleted post of her own, Chartrand accused Ross of engaging in "lateral violence" and sought information about his whereabouts. "If anyone has any information on where this individual works or resides, please reach out publicly," she wrote. Chartrand spokesperson Allen said the minister regrets the post. "Regarding the social media post referenced, Minister Chartrand deeply regrets the language and tone she expressed. She unreservedly offers her apologies for the language of the post," Allen said in a statement. Ross said in an interview he would have preferred a direct apology for trying to discern where he lives and works. "I feel like a direct message would be nice," he said.
ABC News
05-06-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
Sarah Hanson-Young says 'honourable' move is to quit after Dorinda Cox defects
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young says it would be "honourable" for her former colleague Dorinda Cox to leave federal parliament after moving parties. Senator Cox left the Greens this week, arguing her values were more aligned with the government's. Senator Hanson-Young said when a MP switched parties it was unfair on both Australian voters and the political parties involved and they should re-evaluate their position. "If somebody is elected as one party and then jump ships later on, I do think the honourable thing is to resign from the parliament," she said. "But that's not the rules, so we're left where we are." She went on to accuse Labor of "hypocrisy" after government MPs criticised their former colleague Fatima Payman when she left to become an independent because the senator did not vote with the government on a motion about Palestinian statehood. "There is a bit of hypocrisy, of course, about how Labor has responded to this," she said. "It wasn't OK to jump ship for Fatima Payman but apparently when it's people coming to them, it's all OK." Senator Cox was the subject of multiple workplace bullying complaints made to both the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service (PWSS) and the Greens. Ms Cox's defection put an end to the investigation the party launched, according to multiple party sources. That was because the party had no jurisdiction over the defected senator and therefore could not apply any sanctions after she left. That is despite the fact state director of the WA Greens Dean Smith said the investigation had not been concluded. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has insisted investigations into her behaviour "got dealt with by the mechanism that my government established". On Thursday, the prime minister brushed off a question about whether Labor had spoken to any of the complainants before accepting Senator Cox into its ranks. "We have an independent system. That is appropriate," he said. "It is an independent system which was established for these issues to avoid exactly that — to avoid political interference so those issues are dealt with appropriately." He added it was "not surprising" there was "opposition" from the Greens following Senator Cox's defection. Separate to complaints from her staff, Ms Cox's former Greens colleague, Lidia Thorpe, revealed she also made a workplace bullying complaint to the PWSS that she said remained unresolved after nearly three years. Senator Thorpe said that was because Senator Cox did not want to mediate. However, Senator Cox and Labor have not answered the ABC's questions about the claim. But Mr Albanese again supported her defection. "I think that the Labor Party, as the natural party of government, should be the vehicle where people who are serious about progressive change are a part of," he said. Senator Cox has previously apologised for distress her staff faced working in her office, noting the "challenges" and workload, but also arguing the media reports on the bullying allegations — first reported in Nine Newspapers — missed context.
