Thousands of Interior Department employees claim to have experienced harassment or intimidation while at work, The New York Times reports.
Almost 30,000 employees answered questions about harassment and discrimination earlier this year in a Work Environment Survey, about 44 percent of the 70,000 who work in the department. Of those employees, over 30 percent report harassment in some form in the last 12 months, most often in regards to their age or gender. Over 85 percent also report that they have had to continue working with those who have mistreated them.
"This is a breach of public trust," Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke told the Times, noting that he himself fired four people due to harassment allegations. "Harassment — intimidation — is a cancer that can destroy even the best organizations."
Zinke continued, saying, "it has to start from the top, but we have to remove this cancer immediately because it is distracting from our ability to successfully carry out our mission."
"Intimidation, harassment, and discrimination are viruses within an operation, and have no place at Interior," deputy secretary David Bernhardt added in a statement. "The culture across the department will change."
The secretary previously addressed reports of harassment in the National Park Service, vowing to "eradicate" harassment, intimidation and discrimination in the organization.
"No civil servant should have to suffer silently, afraid of retaliation or isolation, when they're just trying to do their job," Zinke said in October, according to the Times. "People don't come to work to be harassed."
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