The Federal Ombudsman for Anti-Harassment has upheld the demotion of a female officer in a case involving the harassment of a male registrar at a government university.
The Ombudsman ruled “Harassment law is not limited to incidents of a sexual nature” and said that creating an atmosphere of pressure and fear also falls under the category of harassment, while upholding the demotion of the officer over allegations of harassing and blackmailing the registrar.
According to the decision, the female officer had expressed a wish to take a selfie with the registrar and later allegedly threatened to release videos and file a harassment complaint against him. The charge of harassing the registrar was proven.
The decision noted that the appointment she wanted was not within the registrar’s authority, following which her behaviour changed. Given the situation, the registrar kept another official present in his room, but the officer repeatedly insisted that the official be sent out. The registrar, feeling threatened, secretly recorded the conversation and later, feeling unsafe, moved to the deputy registrar’s office.
The Ombudsman said that when the recording was played back to her, the officer admitted her mistake and submitted written apologies on two occasions.
The university’s inquiry committee, however, found her guilty and handed her the punishment of demotion, a three-year ban on promotion and disqualification from appointment to an administrative post. She then filed an appeal against this punishment with the Federal Ombudsman for Anti-Harassment.
The Ombudsman has lifted the lifetime bans on her promotion and appointment but has kept the demotion in place.
