The CNRS has sanctioned two research directors for harassment of collaborators, sexual or moral, we learned Thursday from the public body, confirming information from the World. A CNRS research director in Strasbourg, assigned to an Inserm unit on cancer, was excluded from his duties for one year, including six months suspended, for “acts of sexual harassment”, according to the sanction decision disciplinary published in the CNRS official bulletin of April.
In the summer of 2022, two doctoral students and a trainee under the responsibility of the researcher had reported his behavior to the University of Strasbourg, leading the CNRS and Inserm to carry out a joint investigation. It emerged that the researcher had, since 2015, “inappropriate behavior with a sexual connotation”. The doctoral students were placed in a “humiliating and offensive situation which led one of the two doctoral students to wish to end her thesis”, indicates the decision.
The CNRS mentions in particular “the establishment of a proximity with a doctoral student by sharing a hotel room with her during a professional trip abroad”, with “gestures of an inappropriate nature”. The sanctioned researcher denied any sexual connotation to his gestures. The doctoral students have filed a complaint and a police investigation is underway, the public body told AFP.
22 ongoing investigations
The second research director in question, team leader in a laboratory of neurodegenerative diseases at the Atomic Energy Commission (CEA), in Fontenay-aux-Roses (Paris region), was excluded from his duties for a period of one year with a nine-month reprieve. He was sanctioned for moral harassment vis-à-vis a researcher who had returned from maternity leave, according to the conclusions of the investigation. His behavior had been reported in March 2022.
Since the creation of a “reporting unit” in February 2022, 37 reports have been declared admissible, some of which may concern the same person, specifies the CNRS to AFP. To date, 22 investigations are underway or planned.
According to an international Ispos survey for the L’Oréal Foundation published on March 16, one out of two female scientists in the world has been the victim of sexual harassment in the workplace during her career.