Desafíos de las políticas públicas de prevención del acoso laboral en el sector público del Distrito Metropolitano de Quito

Abstract

Workplace harassment, also known as mobbing, is understood as a form of psychological or physical violence that manifests itself in a systematic and repetitive manner within the work environment, affecting performance and damaging the work environment. In the context of public institutions, and specifically in the area of the Transparency and Social Control Function (FTCS), despite the legal advances enshrined in the 2008 Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador and supported by regulations such as the Organic Law of Public Service (LOSEP) and the Labor Code, there are still notable deficiencies in the implementation of effective public policies to prevent and eradicate mobbing. As part of the present study, and through a mixed methodological approach, a survey was applied to 206 civil servants belonging to the institutions that make up the Transparency and Social Control Function. The results obtained clearly show that a significant percentage of those surveyed do not know what workplace harassment is, or, although they identify it, they do not dare to report it for fear of reprisals. Likewise, it was found that not all public servants are informed about existing institutional policies to prevent this problem; however, these measures are insufficient to combat this problem; Furthermore, the government institutions that are part of this State Function do not have their own internal regulations to counteract the problems analyzed; they only adhere to the Protocol issued by the Ministry of Labor.