The department's work against discriminatory treatment and for equal opportunities is not just a matter of procedure
Mats Utas, Head of the Department, was interviewed in the magazine Universitetsläraren, after the department received an injunction from the Swedish Work Environment Authority due to shortcomings in work environment management. Mats expresses frustration that representatives from this agency only are interested in ensuring a processing structure, while they completely ignore all the actual work that the department has done.
In a new report from the Swedish Work Environment Authority, 70% of departments at Swedish universities receive remarks about their work against discriminatory treatment. The Department of Cultural Anthropology and Ethnology also received an injunction.
-There were no major changes requested. It was mainly about the fact that we were inspected when we had changed HR staff three times in a short period. As a result, we simply didn't have time to write up the procedure document, which was the only thing they looked at in the inspection. All the other work we have done and the fact that, according to employee surveys, we have a good working environment does not come out in the audit, which is a shame. Many departments do a solid job when it comes to discriminatory treatment, which is not visible when the Swedish Work Environment Authority only focuses on yet another protocol to fill out, says Mats Utas.
The article is in Swedish and can be read at Universitetsläraren’s website.