Sanctions by the National Assembly in the event of moral or sexual harassment by a deputy, in particular of a collaborator, will be facilitated, the institution decided on Monday, February 21, after a report from its ethics officer rejecting any “inertia“.
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The office of the Assembly, its highest collegiate body, specified in the code of ethics of deputies that moral or sexual harassment constitutes “a violation of the duty to set an example“. Thus for such acts, a deputy will incur a disciplinary sanction – from a call to order to temporary exclusion. This is to certify “the will of the institution» of «do not tolerate such behavior“, had recommended the ethics officer Christophe Pallez in his annual report, published Tuesday. It is he who will be able to seize the office of the Assembly, who will pronounce the sanction.
24 people seized the cell
An independent anti-harassment unit was set up in February 2020, intended for employees of MPs and political groups, Assembly staff and MPs themselves. The unit’s mission is to listen to and advise people, and if necessary support them so that they undertake the appropriate procedures, such as filing a complaint, a rare step at the Palais Bourbon. The cell can also transmit all the useful elements to the ethics officer, who can himself take legal action.
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Between February and December 2021, 24 people seized this cell, 18 women and six men. Among them, 21 wanted their file to be handled by a team of experts made up of lawyers, jurists and psychologists, details the ethics officer. They reported “a situation of suffering at work or a situation that would be similar to moral harassment“, he underlines. In addition, two also shared “facts that could constitute sexist acts or sexual harassment“. Three “reportswere made to the human resources department, in the case of staff from the Assembly’s services. Nine cases were sent to the ethics officer, concerning employees of deputies – including five reports targeting one and the same person in question.
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For the first time, the ethics officer then sent a case to justice for alleged acts of sexual harassment. The former Gironde deputy Benoit Simian is targeted, whom one of his collaborators accuses of having forced her to sleep in the same room as him and of having multiplied the intimate messages at the end of 2020-beginning of 2021, according to Mediapart. The Bordeaux prosecutor’s office has just opened an investigation. The ethics officer recognizes that this long process and also “the strong expectation of the victims” opposite the Assembly lead “to accusations of institutional inertia“. In addition to the strengthening of sanctions, Christophe Pallez also calls for training to prevent these actions: the staff of the Assembly were able to benefit from it at the end of 2021 and the deputies should, according to him, follow workshops on a compulsory basis at the start of the next legislature.