Five former accredited parliamentary assistants  accuse MEP Angelika Werthmann of severe bullying.

These accusations were made public in reports by the Austrian public radio and television station ORF and the Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse.

Below you will find the translations and the original version (in German) of the articles.

Link to the original article (in German): http://orf.at/stories/2120839/

Translation of the article on orf.at, 17.05.2012:

Bullying accusations against MEP Werthmann

Several former assistants are accusing the independent MEP from Salzburg of workplace bullying. Five ex-assistants, who worked for MEP Werthmann in the past five months, filed complaints with the Assistants Union of the European Parliament, claiming "daily harassments and bullying attacks", "excessive working hours" and "lack of respect for privacy".

Confronted with the accusations, Werthmann stated yesterday to the Austrian Press Agency (APA): "Of course this is incorrect." Four of the women, who would like to remain anonymous and whose names and reports of the incidents are available to the APA, are complaining about physical health problems such as emaciation, gastritis, deprivation of sleep, vision disorders and migraines, which they ascribe to the mental strains at their workplace.

"Astonished and surprised"

"I don't understand this. We have a good working climate", says Werthmann, who seemed "astonished and surprised" by the "defamatory allegations", which she will promptly pass on to her lawyer. "There is nothing to it", she emphasized.

Frank Puskarev, member of the staff council of MEP assistants and an assistant of the German MEP Thomas Händel (GUE), explained to the APA: "Should the allegations against Mrs. Werthmann be true - and, based on the background information of various ex-assistants, I have no occasion to doubt them - then this behavior is dishonorable of an MEP and employer. After the explanations of the employees, one can certainly refer to this as psychological terror and bullying. Interestingly enough, Mrs. Werthmann has dedicated herself to fight against bullying at the workplace, however such standards don't seem to apply for herself."

Link to the original article from the Austrian daily newspaper Die Presse (in German): http://diepresse.com/home/politik/innenpolitik/758649/

Translated excerpt from Die Presse, 17.05.2012:

"Browsing through private documents"

Another ex-assistant stated Mrs. Werthmann "displayed an eager interest in the private life of her assistants beyond human curiosity, [and did so] preferably not directly, but through other assistants". Werthmann's response was that in regular meetings and during coffee breaks she talked to her assistants and merely wanted to "take interest in the life" of her assistants. An ex-assistant described that Werthmann, on the pretext of cleaning up the office, thoroughly searched the desk of a fellow assistant and browsed through private documents.

Frank Puskarev (member of the staff council of MEP assistants) criticized that the EU civil servant statute and the rules safeguarding staff against harassment, bullying and unjustified decisions by the employer are in practice barely effective. "In such cases the freedom of the mandate is placed above the protection of the employees, who are often only left only with the extremely burdensome and expensive option to go to the European Court of Justice. This situation is not compatible with the social protection and equality goals and demands of the Union", says Puskarev. This deficiency could be corrected with the upcoming changes of the statute.

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