Protection vs. Bullying at Work - Educators, Not Just Youths at Risk

For July 20, 2012 UPDATE, scroll down
Teachers are subject to unprecedented workplace, particularly in the current teacher-bashing climate, and in the New York City Department of Education with administrators trained in the privately funded (by organizations such as the Broad Foundation and the Partnership for New York City) Leadership Academy --which the DOE presses superintendents to hire principals from.

The following article is mainly regarding bullying at the higher education level, but many of the issues will be familiar to teachers and other workers.

John Tarleton's article, "PSC Backs Healthy Workplace Bill: Protection vs. Bullying at Work" appeared in "Clarion," the publication of the Professional Staff Congress (PSC) of the City University of New York (CUNY), June, 2012.

Public concern about school bullying has increased greatly in recent years. No longer seen as an inevitable part of growing up, school bullying is now understood as an important social problem that can affect both health and learning, and as a problem that school districts have a responsibility to solve.

Now a coalition of unions and worker advocacy groups in New York State is taking aim at another venue where bullying is widespread but little acknowledged – the workplace. The PSC and its coalition allies aim to win passage of the Healthy Workplace Bill (S4289/A4258), a measure that would provide remedies to workers whose employers allow them to be subjected to a pattern of abusive conduct on the job.

ADULT VICTIMS

“Bullying happens on many levels,” says Paul Washington, vice chair of the PSC’s Higher Education Officer (HEO) Chapter. “Just because we are adults doesn’t mean that we don’t get disrespected or demeaned.” When HEO chapter leaders visit CUNY campuses, Washington told Clarion, “We always have people pulling us aside and telling us they have been bullied but are afraid to speak out about it.”

While victims of bullying often remain silent, when they do speak out the revelations can be shocking. Court papers in personal lawsuit by two HEO-series employees a few years ago provide a clear illustration of what bullying can be like.

Emelise Aleandri and Gloria Salerno charged that the director of CUNY’s John D. Calandra Italian American Institute, Joseph Scelsa, had relentlessly targeted them for more than a decade after he learned they were organizing a women’s support group for female employees who were chafing under Scelsa’s management. Considering this an act of disloyalty, Scelsa ordered the group to disband, they said – and then went after them.

Scelsa waged “a campaign of obsessive control and bureaucratic maneuvers designed to humiliate and slowly choke them out of their jobs,” the two women told Clarion. Salerno, for example, was stripped of her duties and instructed to sit quietly at an empty makeshift desk constructed from a plank of wood placed atop two filing cabinets – with no access to a computer and no assignments to complete.

Aleandri, who was a producer, writer and host for a CUNY-TV show, saw her job responsibilities whittled away while subordinates were promoted over her. Relegated for nine years to an office without a telephone, Aleandri said she was forced to route all her professional communications through her boss’s office so that he could monitor everything she said. On a day-to-day basis, she told Clarion, there were “a million little things” that created a hostile work environment.

When Aleandri and Salerno sued for gender discrimination, their case was dismissed. A state judge found that Scelsa did indeed abuse and humiliate the institute’s employees – but that he directed such treatment toward men as well as women. Under current law, harassment of employees that would be illegal if used to discriminate becomes legal if not directed against a particular group. And that, in a nutshell, is the case for legislation against bullying in the workplace: to establish in law that abusive treatment of workers is always wrong.

(Aleandri and Salerno did reach a financial settlement with CUNY, after the judge supported their claim ruling that they had been subject to retaliation for filing a discrimination complaint. Civil rights law bans such retaliation, regardless of whether the complaint is sustained.)

WIDESPREAD

A 2010 Zogby survey found that 53.5 million Americans (or about one-third of the US workforce) have experienced workplace bullying, while 23 million more have witnessed it. According to the poll, 62% of workplace bullies are men while 58% of targets are women. A follow-up survey by Zogby found public support running strongly in favor of legislation to protect workers from “abusive conduct” by a margin of 64% to 24%.

The HEO Chapter has taken an active role in pressing this issue, says Chapter Chair Iris DeLutro, because HEOs are vulnerable to bullying at CUNY. They have fewer job protections than full-time faculty and are increasingly pushed by management to do more work to compensate for budget cuts and the departure of colleagues who took early retirement. These pressures create fertile soil for bullying of employees. “More is expected for less, and too often people are treated badly,”said DeLutro, who has working to change state law on workplace bullying since 2004.

The Healthy Workplace Bill now under consideration in Albany is based on a simple idea: people should be able to do their jobs without being harassed and abused. The legislation would enable workers to sue if they can prove that their employer allowed them to become the target of this kind of sustained mistreatment. Actions could be brought for medical expenses, lost wages, compensation for emotional suffering and punitive damages.

DIVIDED LEGISLATURE

In 2010, the New York State Senate passed the Healthy Workplace Bill with broad bipartisan support, only to have the legislation buried in committee in the State Assembly. This year, the bill has 85 co-sponsors in the State Assembly, a sizable majority of that body’s 150 members. However, the bill does not currently have the support of a majority of the members of the Republican-led State Senate.

“We’ve got to put the pressure on and give State legislators the support they need to pass this,” DeLutro said. DeLutro and other PSC members traveled to Albany on May 22 to lobby for the Healthy Workplace Bill and other union legislative priorities. The grassroots lobbying effort was organized with the PSC’s state affiliate, New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), which has long supported the Healthy Workplace Bill.

Employer associations claim that the Healthy Workplace Bill would be a “job-killer.” But those who study workplace psychology insist that ensuring emotionally healthy workplaces will be a boon to the economy.

$300 BILLION

“I think it’s important to have a healthy work environment so that we can perform at our optimum levels,” said Clara Wajngurt, a Queensborough Community College professor who is studying bullying and the academic workplace. “I’ve seen people leave jobs who were very good workers when the situation could have been handled differently.”

According to the New York State Psychological Association, which supports the legislation, job stress costs the US economy $300 billion a year in absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover and direct medical, legal and insurance fees.

“Because society and the media have projected the idea that a boss is supposed to be yelling and screaming and demeaning to their employees, we think this is how it’s supposed to be,” Washington told Clarion. “We are going to have greater worker productivity once people are able to come out of the shadows and confront this.”

And in the end, he said, “It’s just the right thing to do.”

What is workplace bullying?
Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable actions aimed at intimidating, humiliating, degrading or undermining an employee or group of employees. Bullying may create a risk to employee health and safety.
Workplace bullying often involves abuse or misuse of power. Bullying behavior creates feelings of defenselessness and injustice in the target and undermines an individual's right to dignity at work.
Bullying is different from aggression, which may involve only a single act. Bullying involves repeated attacks, creating an ongoing pattern of abusive behavior.
Bosses who are tough or demanding or who set high standards are not necessarily bullies, so long as they are respectful and fair and their expectations are reasonable.

EXAMPLES OF WORKPLACE BULLYING
*use of abusive, insulting or offensive language
*excluding, isolating or marginalizing an employee
*constant and unwarranted criticism, without factual justification
*frightening or intimidating behavior
*tampering with someone else's work, work equipment, or personal belongings
*deliberately withholding information or resources necessary for effective work performance
*excessive monitoring or micromanaging
*being targeted for impossible assignments or deadlines

PHYSICAL & MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES THAT CAN RESULT
*anxiety
*sleep deprivation
*gastrointestinal disorders
*musculoskeletal disorders
*hypertension
*increased risk of cardiovascular illness
*reduced self-esteem

WHAT EMPLOYEES CAN DO
Regain control:
*Recognize that you are being bullied.
*Realize that you are not the source of the problem.
*Understand that bullying is about control and not about your performance.
Take action:
*Speak directly to the bully. Calmly state that his/her behavior is unacceptable and must stop. Ask that any discussions be constructive and professional.
*Avoid being alone with the bully.
*Create a paper or digital train of evidence. Document incidents and witnesses. Save harassing e-mails or memos.
*Seek support from trusted colleagues.
*Consult with a grievance counselor at [your union office] about what options may be available to you.
*Work for the enactment of legislation against workplace bullying.

(Adapted from a New York Committee for Occupational Safety & Health resource paper.)

News report: “Workplace Bullying 'Epidemic' Worse Than Sexual Harassment”

UPDATE: Education Week, July 20, 2012: "Online Campaign Winds Down for Bullied Bus Monitor."

NYC Charter School Teachers Fired for Pregnancy; Why We Need Tenure and Unions

Voices New York, a media project of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, reports that "Charter School Teachers Say They Were Fired for Getting Pregnant."
Voices New York translated a story from El Diario/La Prensa.

Time was, before tenure, schools and principals would routine impress upon female teachers to not become pregnant. Tenure was a safeguard that protected education workers from such harassment. Workers formed unions to protect their democratic rights on the job. In the world of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and other politicians the vision of the future is a union-free environment known as the charter school.
Shame on the Department of Education, and politicians of all parties, for pushing these charter schools on us! Pregnant and child-bearing teachers have rights too!
The story of two teachers, fired for their pregnancies on company time, is a classic case for tenure protection and for unionization. Take note of one teacher's comment about how she would have been better protected with a union.
Here's the latest United Federation of Teachers (UFT) contract which would have protected the teachers, had their school been a public school, not a charter school.

Advocates for charter schools have argued that the right to hire and fire teachers should be in the hands of principals, while unions argue that teachers need job protections. This argument may play out in the upcoming mayoral race, with Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an advocate for charter schools, stepping down.
Against this backdrop, El Diario La Prensa reported on two Spanish teachers in the Bronx who say they were dismissed from a charter school because they became pregnant — and that they were then subjected to the indignity of having lesson plans stolen and being coerced into writing a positive evaluation of the school. The article, which did not include a response to the charges from the school’s principal or the Department of Education, is translated from Spanish below.
Two teachers at a charter school denounced the way that they were fired. They called the school administration autocratic and discriminatory, and said that favoritism rules.
Loyda Suero, of Dominican heritage, and Leslie Cruz, of Puerto Rican descent, taught Spanish to 5-year-old children this past spring semester in the bilingual Jardín de Infancia classroom, at South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures and the Arts, located at 577 East 139th Street in the Bronx.
However, although both teachers said they had a good relationship with the children, the parents, and the school administration, Suero said that in her case, everything changed when she announced she was pregnant.
“The principal, Evelyn Hey, told me that she wanted a teacher who was going to be with the children for the entire year,” said Suero, age 24, who will give birth in February and promised to only take one month of maternity leave.
Hey told Suero, “I would love for you to come back, but I had a daughter and she got sick with a heart condition, and it took me seven years to return,” indicating to her that teachers have to plan to give birth in the summertime.
[Because the teachers worked at a charter school] “They don’t have the same type of protection that union members have. They can be dismissed without a reason,” said Richard Riley, head of public relations for the United Federation of Teachers.
This newspaper got in touch with the school and made an appointment with Hey to interview her, but she cancelled it barely one hour before it started at the recommendation of the school’s legal counsel. “I don’t want to create problems for the school,” said Hey.
South Bronx Charter School (Photo via EDLP)
On June 27, when the teachers went to pick up their belongings, they were asked for a list of lesson plans and activities they did in the classroom to provide a guide for the new teachers.
Both teachers did so, but when they returned from lunch, they found that their files had been opened. The folders containing their lesson plans and activities that they had developed throughout the year were missing.
“I got scared. The folders with my lesson plans – that’s my work!” said Suero. “Nobody gave it to me. I need to present it at interviews to get another job, and it was taken away.”
“I approached the principal’s assistant, and she told us that it’s school property,” said Cruz, age 34.
Suero and Cruz went to the office, where they found another assistant photocopying the contents of their files. “We’ll give them back to you once we’ve made copies,” they were told. Both teachers waited, but Suero still hasn’t received her lesson plans that she made, including one “about the snail and the apple.”
“I got so upset because it was an abuse of power,” said Cruz. “I became enraged because we felt like they walked all over us. If they needed our work, why couldn’t they have asked for it? What nerve!”
Cruz and Suero condemned the school administration for putting pressure on some teachers and favoring others, including when it comes to scheduling doctor’s appointments. “They told me to go to the doctor during my vacation,” said Suero.
They also criticized the lack of instruction and leadership for new teachers.
“You didn’t have a mentor,” said Cruz. “They gave authority to other colleagues who had been there for four years, but it’s not their mission to help teachers. There wasn’t any support; we had to come up with out own lesson plans. The only thing they’re concerned with is reading, because it raises the grade of the school.”
Cruz and Suero said they weren’t the only teachers who got fired; one other teacher was also dismissed. Two teachers resigned, and another pregnant teacher was demoted to a substitute for the following school year.
“Teachers live in fear of what will happen at the end of the year,” said Cruz. “Will I stay or will I go? We don’t have a union, but with a union, a teacher has rights. It wouldn’t be like this if we had one.”
“It’s all a show. They exploit you and then they give you the ax,” declared Suero.
Both teachers also condemned the way in which the school handled the questionnaire that teachers fill out for the Department of Education.
“They set up computers in the principal’s office,” said Cruz. “She told us that she expected us to only say good things about our experience, and that if something was wrong, we should tell her before answering. She told us this while walking around among us. She would stand behind you…I consider her warning to be a threat.”
The DOE said that the questionnaire is for all schools. The goal is to gather information to improve the learning environment and the questionnaire is completely confidential.
The Code of Ethics that governs the questionnaire states, “Any practice that has the appearance of violating this code of behavior will be investigated. Depending on the outcome, the questionnaire can be invalidated and other disciplinary measures may be taken.”
Suero graduated from Lehman College and Cruz studied in Puerto Rico.

Here is Candida Portugues' article in the original Spanish in "El Diario/La Prensa," July 6, 2012,
"Maestras alegan que fueron despedidas por embarazo: Una profesora dominicana y otra puertorriqueña denunciaron a la gerencia de la escuela como dictatorial y discriminatoria":

EL BRONX – Dos maestras despedidas de una escuela charter denunciaron la forma en que lo hicieron y califican a la gerencia de la escuela como dictatorial y discriminatoria, en la que rige el favoritismo.
Loyda Suero, dominicana, y Leslie Cruz, puertorriqueña, trabajaron este semestre como profesoras de español para la clase de Jardín de Infancia bilingüe, niños de 5 años, en la South Bronx Charter School for International Cultures and the Arts, en el 577 Este de la calle 139 de El Bronx.
Sin embargo, aunque aseguraron tener buena relación con los niños, los padres y gerencia de la escuela, Suero señaló que todo cambió -en su caso- cuando dijo que estaba embarazada.
"La directora, Evelyn Hey, me dijo que quería una profesora que estuviera todo el año con los niños", indicó Suero, quien dará a luz en febrero y se comprometió a tomar sólo un mes de maternidad. "A mí me encantaría que tú volvieras, pero yo tuve una niña y nació enferma del corazón y tardé siete años en volver...", dijo Suero, de 24 años, refiriéndose a lo que le respondió Hey, indicándole que las profesoras tienen que planificar ser madres en verano.
"Ellas no tienen el tipo de protección que nosotros tenemos [los sindicalizados], pueden ser despedidas sin razón", dijo Richard Riley, encargado de prensa del Sindicato de Profesores (UFT).
Puestos en contacto con la escuela, Hey fijó una fecha para ser entrevistada, pero la canceló apenas una hora después por recomendación de su departamento legal. "No quiero meter a la escuela en problemas", nos dijo Hey.
El 27 de junio -cuando las maestras fueron a recoger sus pertenencias- les pidieron una lista con las lecciones y trabajos realizados para orientación de la próxima maestra.
Así lo hicieron, pero cuando regresaron del almuerzo encontraron que sus carteras estaban abiertas y faltaban sus carpetas de lecciones y trabajos que habían ido construyendo por sí mismas a lo largo del año.
"Me espanté, las carpetas con mis lecciones, que es mi trabajo ¡que nadie me dio! y que necesito mostrar para conseguir otro empleo, se las habían llevado", dijo Suero.
"Me acerqué a la asistente de la directora… y nos dijo que eso es propiedad de la escuela", indicó Cruz, de 34 años. Fueron a la oficina y encontraron a otra asistente haciendo fotocopias de sus carpetas: "Te las vamos a dar de vuelta cuando hagamos copias", les informó. Ambas esperaron a que las hicieran, pero Suero aún no recuperó los estudios y trabajos que hizo "sobre el caracol y la manzana", según denunció.
"Me molesté ¡tanto! porque era un abuso de poder…. Me dio coraje porque sentimos que nos pisotearon… 'Si usted necesita eso ¿por qué no nos lo pidieron, cómo tuvieron ese atrevimiento?'", afirma Cruz que les increpó.
Ambas denuncian una gerencia que presiona a unas maestras y privilegia a otras, incluso a la hora de hacer una cita médica. "Me dijeron que hiciera mis citas en las vacaciones", afirma Suero. Asimismo, denunciaron la falta de dirección y liderazgo con las maestras nuevas. "No tenías un mentor, delegaban en otros compañeros que llevaban cuatro años, pero ésa no es su misión. No había apoyo, teníamos que inventarnos nuestras lecciones. Lo único de lo que se preocupan es de la lectura, porque es lo que sube el grado de la escuela", dijo Cruz.
Ambas indicaron no ser las únicas despedidas. Hubo otra más, dos maestras que renunciaron y otra embarazada que la bajaron de puesto y la pusieron como sustituta para el próximo año. "Las maestras viven con temor sobre qué pasará al final de año ¿me quedo o me voy?. Como no tenemos unión (sindicato), pero con todo eso, una como maestra tiene sus derechos y no debería ser así", afirmó Cruz.
"Es puro show. Te explotan para quedar bien y luego te dan la patada... ", declaró Suero.
Asimismo, ambas denunciaron la forma en que la escuela manejó el cuestionario que los maestros responden para el Departamento de Educación (DOE). "Instalaron computadoras en la oficina de la directora y ésta nos dijo que esperaba que pusiéramos todo bien y que si había algo mal que se le dijera a ella antes de ponerlo, mientras se paseaba entre nosotras, se paraba detrás de ti … esa advertencia yo la considero una amenaza… ", afirmó Cruz.
Pero el DOE indicó que este cuestionario es para todas las escuelas. Su objetivo es recopilar información para mejorar el ambiente de aprendizaje y es totalmente confidencial.
"Cualquier práctica que tenga la apariencia de violar este código de conducta será investigada y, dependiendo de los resultados, el cuestionario puede ser invalidado y otras medidas disciplinarias pueden tomarse", indica el Código de Ética que rige el cuestionario.
Suero se graduó del Lehman College y Cruz estudió en Puerto Rico.