Prevention against incidents of offensive acts

We have an emergency management plan which describes how staff and others connected with SDU should act to prevent and/or reduce damage and injury during and after an accident or an emergency.

The goals of the emergency management plan are to help save lives, limit personal injury, and protect property.

Next to the entrance door there is a quick'n dirty emergency plan. Please find the full emergency plan there.

• We talk openly about offensive acts including bullying at our department;
• We work for a common understanding of what bullying entails;
• We have an Anti-Bullying Working Group at our department;
• We work with IGLO (Individual, Group, Leadership/Management, Organisation) model, expecting everyone to contribute preventing bullying and/or offensive behavior.

Defining offensive acts

“Offensive acts are when one or more persons grossly or repeatedly expose one or more other persons in the company to bullying, sexual harassment or other degrading behavior at work. The conduct must be perceived as degrading by the victim or victims. It does not matter whether the actions are an expression of thoughtlessness or a definite desire to offend. It is the person's experience of the abusive actions that is central.”
 - Freely translated from Danish from Arbejdstilsynet (Work environment in Denmark).

”Bullying is when one or more persons regularly and over longer time – or repeated times in a blatant manner – exerts another person to offensive acts that this person recognizes as hurtful or degrading. Bullying is in play only when the person affected is not able to protect him/herself efficiently”
 - Freely translated from Danish from Arbejdstilsynet (Work environment in Denmark).

Declaration of intent

The management has zero tolerance what it comes to offensive acts, including and not limited to bullying, sexual harassment, sexism.

If it happens, it becomes a department issue. If the head of the department becomes aware of a specific offensive act, the head of department is committed to investigate the case and, if needed, to act upon it.

You can report an incident to official contact points:

• Head of Department: Lone Grønbæk
• Vice-Head of Department for Education: Christian Kronborg
• Work Environment Representative: Jørgen T. Lauridsen
• Union Representatives (e.g Karsten Boye Rasmussen, Ann Skovly, or others)

These contact points are obliged to act if they receive a report.

I you prefer to discuss the matter anonymously or to seek guidance you can contact:

• Research Group Leaders: Thomas Barnebeck Andersen, Rafael Treibivh, Giovanni Mellace, Paul Sharp, Astrid Holm Nielsen;
• PhD-coordinator: Giovanni Mellace;
• HR-service (psychologist): Pernille Reumert - read more here.

These contact points will not act if they receive a report. Instead, they will:

• be available as a sounding board, to talk through the issues, if possible, help the person see a way forward,
• be someone who can be trusted to be confidential,
• help them put their best argument forward if they decide they want to tell someone else,
• point them in the right direction if they are unable to help,
• facilitate mediation if requested.

If you seek full anonymity, you can report an incident anonymously by dropping a note in the mailbox of any of the listed contact points (except from the psychologist). You can, however, not expect the same actions with anonymous reports to the listed contact points as with non-anonymous reports.

If you need to report a serious matter anonymously the Whistleblower Scheme is available.

Whistleblower Scheme

SDU has a Whistleblowing Scheme where employees (or others) can report information about offensive behavior at SDU (and also any illegal acts, serious financial irregularities, academic misconduct).
The purpose of the whistleblowing scheme is to increase the opportunities for among others the employees to comment on objectionable incidents at SDU without fear of negative consequences. 
The Whistleblower Scheme is a supplement to the direct and daily communication in the workplace about significant errors and unsatisfactory conditions.
Actions can be made based on reports in this scheme. Read more here.

Action is expected only on specific incidents being reported.
If an incident is reported to one of the official contact points, the case is investigated. 
As a rule of thumb, conflicts are solved at the lowest possible level and through in-line management. 
It is important to acknowledge that there is always more than one party in a conflict/incident. The management has the obligation to impartially hear all parts involved in the incident. Dialogue with the persons involved would be the first approach to solve the issue at hand. 
If your conflict includes your in-line manager, you are encouraged to reach out to the manager of your in-line management or to your union representative.
If reports are anonymously delivered at the department, they will - as a rule of thumb - only serve as information for the management with the aim of improving the work environment. The management may decide to have a dialogue with the non-anonymous part in the conflict.

Sanctions can come into play if unacceptable behavior occurs, where unacceptable behavior can be offensive behavior or a false accusation. 
Sanctions can take different forms as oral or written warnings, relocations, or layoffs. In severe cases it can also be reported to the police.

All involved parts in a reported case have the right to receive support and guidance. Support and guidance can be obtained from any of the contact point (officially or anonymously), see above.