The National Nuclear Security Administration has “limited information on the prevalence of sexual harassment” in its nuclear security forces and needs to take steps to comply with federal anti-harassment policies, said a government study published Monday.
The NNSA currently doesn’t meet the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s (EEOC) guidelines on responding to and preventing workplace sexual harassment, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in its Monday report.
“Because NNSA has not formally reviewed EEOC’s practices and considered which to adopt for its nuclear security forces, or made similar considerations for its security force contractors, the agency may be missing opportunities to prevent and respond to sexual harassment,” the report said.
The NNSA needs to review these practices and decide how to implement them with its federal security forces, and it should consider requiring contractors to do the same, the report said. The report also recommended the agency develop an anonymous survey structure to better understand the frequency of sexual harassment within its nuclear security forces.
GAO was directed to complete this report as part of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act, the report said. This came after public allegations of sexual harassment within the nuclear security forces surfaced that same year.
