Survey reveals harassment worries at EU cyber agency

Boss of Greece-based organization ‘very concerned’ by findings.

More than 40 percent of workers surveyed at the EU’s cybersecurity agency reported concerns about psychological harassment and almost a third were worried about sexual harassment, according to an internal report obtained by POLITICO.

The staff survey at the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA), which has offices in the Greek cities of Athens and Heraklion, found that 44 percent of respondents are concerned about “emotional strain” and 43 percent are concerned about psychological harassment. Forty-one percent expressed concern about “feeling safe” at the agency, 32 percent cited mental strain and 30 percent voiced concern about sexual harassment.

The agency “is very concerned about the results and is taking serious measures to detect, prevent and react to any type of harassment in the workplace,” ENISA Executive Director Udo Helmbrecht said in a statement to POLITICO.

EU agencies are among many organizations around the world whose record on harassment has come under greater scrutiny following the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Last summer the executive director of EASO, the EU’s asylum agency, José Carreira, stepped down amid allegations of staff harassment, including “psychological violence” and an investigation by the bloc’s anti-fraud office, OLAF. POLITICO reported that OLAF uncovered a range of wrongdoing at the agency, from breaches of procurement rules to harassment of staff members. Carreira rejected the allegations against him.

Also last year, a POLITICO investigation found that three male staff at the EU’s gender equality agency faced sexual harassment complaints in 2014. Two of the complaints were upheld and resulted in departures from the organization.

At ENISA, the management board were informed of the survey findings at a meeting last month, Helmbrecht said. “This is being discussed with the staff and management,” he added, noting that a number of measures had already been introduced, such as a program of annual mandatory training, support from an external assessor to work with staff and management, and a dedicated page on the agency’s intranet with relevant information.

A total of 41 people responded to the survey, out of 68 ENISA workers invited to take part. In the report, the Dutch firm that conducted the survey, GNKS, said the results “cannot be considered representative for ENISA as a whole” but “the group of respondents is big enough for the results to be indicative for appreciation or concerns relating to working for ENISA.”

In March 2018, Helmbrecht joined other EU agency chiefs in signing up to a joint declaration on harassment, which states that “we cannot and will not accept harassment of any form in our agencies.”

ENISA was set up in 2004 and deals with network and information security within the EU. It advises EU member countries on issues such as the development of national cybersecurity strategies.

The agency has faced criticism for having offices in two different cities. It was originally based solely in Heraklion, the main city on the island of Crete, but staff complained that jobs for partners and schools for their children were hard to find. The agency later opened a second base in Athens while still maintaining a Heraklion presence — an arrangement that cost the Greek government an extra €1 million between 2013 and 2016 alone, according to a report quoting ENISA’s figures.

A summary in the staff survey report said that overall “the organisation is ‘ok’ with some points of excellence, and some areas where improvement is possible, or needed.”

To gauge concerns about various issues, staff were asked to respond to statements such as “I am not aware and have no concerns about sexual harassment at ENISA.”

Another area of concern was that 41 percent of the staff surveyed do not agree with the statement “I am not afraid to speak my mind about issues at ENISA.”

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