News item | 09-02-2024 | 2:30 PM
Within the national government, 1 in 10 employees experience racism. This is evident from a study into racism in the workplace that was conducted among almost 4,500 employees. Further research should clarify how the current approach to racism in the workplace can be strengthened.
The reason for the National Government Personal Survey on the subject was the exploration ‘Racism at BZ’ by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in December 2022. The conclusion, namely that there is institutional racism, raised the question of how this could be done more broadly within the central government. fed up. That is why in 2023, 14,304 government officials out of 139,845 government officials were approached to participate in a study. Of these, 4,481 people (31%) completed the questionnaire.
This shows that racism occurs in the workplace. About 10% of the people who completed the survey experienced this themselves in the past year. Of these, 9% have experienced this once and 1% have experienced this monthly.
17% of respondents also indicate that they have noticed racism towards (other) colleagues in the workplace in the past year, of which 16% indicate that they have noticed this once in a while and 1% have seen this at least once a month.
Furthermore, approximately 11% have noticed racism by colleagues towards citizens in the past year, of which 10% indicate that they have noticed this occasionally and 1% have observed this regularly.
Of the people whose country of origin is the Netherlands, 6% indicate that they have experienced racism. For respondents with a non-European country of origin, this is 29%. People from lower scales indicate that they have experienced more racism than people from higher scales. For example, 17% of respondents in salary scale 1-4 indicate that they have experienced racism. In salary scale 14-19 this is 7%.
State Secretary Van Huffelen of the Interior calls the results unacceptable. “Every colleague who experiences racism is one too many. At work it should be about what you do and not about who you are or where you come from. That is why I find this again a confrontational study. It makes it clear that we must continue to work on tackling this.”
In recent years, additional efforts have been made within the government to reduce discrimination and racism under the heading ‘Government for Everyone’. This approach focuses on raising awareness and increasing resilience and alertness to discrimination and racism. Managers are supported in their responsibility to tackle racism. There is also an Interdepartmental Network on Combating Racism to combine departmental knowledge and forces. This Network is supported by an expert group consisting of representatives of the National Coordinator against Discrimination and Racism (NCDR), the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (CvRM), the Multicultural Network of Government Civil Servants (MNR) and the State Commission against Discrimination and Racism.
The State Secretary emphasizes the role model that government officials have. “Racism has no place in the Netherlands and we must set a good example, especially within the government. We are therefore now going to look at how we can strengthen the approach we already use for this.”
In the near future, groups will continue to discuss racism in the workplace. This should provide a clear picture of the dynamics and circumstances under which this type of undesirable behavior takes place and how it was subsequently handled. This should lead to a strengthened approach to discrimination and racism within the government.