‘More military bullied than make complaints’
PDFORRA, the body representing rank-and-file members, said the number of complaints had fallen in recent years despite what they say has been genuine progress in strategies to address the problem.
There were only nine complaints of harassment or bullying, including two from female members, in 2006. This compares to 17 complaints, including four from women, in 2004.
Details of an independent report, by Dr Eileen Doyle, which emerged in 2004, showed that 25% of military personnel claimed to have been bullied, includingalmost 70% of women in the lower ranks.
A raft of changes wereintroduced in the wake of the report, driven at a high level by Defence Minister Willie O’Dea and senior brass in the Defence Forces.
An amended system of making complaints through the interpersonal relationships procedure (A7) was brought in to help address the problem.
This less formal system was in addition to the redress of wrongs scheme.
A survey published last week indicated that around 27% of female members claimed they had been bullied or harassed in the past year.
PDFORRA general secretary, Gerry Rooney, said: “I’m not saying there hasn’t been progress over the last number of years, but I would have liked to have seen the progress go to an extent where people would feel happy to complain, whatever the result.
“In fact the trend, as far as I can see, is that there is now less complaints in both systems, both the redress of wrongs and the A7 system, in that context I am somewhat surprised.
“I would have thought that given the support for the new environment, in terms of been bullying-free and harassment-free, I would have thought people would have felt more comfortable about making a complaint.”
He added: “There is a reluctance to do so, because people feel they are sticking their head up above the parapet.”
Mr Rooney said his concerns were heightened by a survey published last week by the Defence Forces.
It showed that almost three-out-of-10 of the 520 serving female personnel had been bullied or harassed over the past year.
“There would appear to be in the survey a higher number saying they had been bullied or harassed than the complaints would indicate.”
He said this appeared to suggest many didn’t feel safe making a complaint.
There were 45 complaints, all from male members, of bullying or harassment under the redress of wrongs scheme between 1996 and 2006.
Five were upheld, 33 were not upheld and seven are ongoing.
There were six complaints in 2004, five in 2005 and three in 2006.
There was only one complaint under this system from a female member since 1996. That was not upheld.
There were 21 complaints under the interpersonal relationships procedure (A7) between 2004 and 2006.
Of those, 14 were from men and seven were from women.
There were 11 complaints in 2004, four in 2005 and six in 2006.
