Promote a productive community environment: Treat all volunteers, employees and community members with respect, courtesy, and dignity. Harassment based on an someone’s religion, age, sex, gender identity, national origin, race, color, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, or other status protected by applicable law is prohibited. Prohibited acts include, without limitation, verbal harassment (epithets, derogatory or degrading statements, slurs), physical harassment (assault, physical interference with normal work or involvement), visual harassment (posters, cartoons, drawings), and innuendo. Any conduct that creates an intimidating, offensive or hostile environment is prohibited, even if such conduct occurs off of Greenpeace property or after normal volunteer hours.
Model behavior that respects the human rights of all people and protects volunteers, staff and community members from exploitation and abuse: Inappropriate sexual relationships with other volunteers, Greenpeace staff, and community members is prohibited.
Prohibited sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, sexually motivated physical contact and other verbal or physical conduct, or visual forms of harassment of a sexual nature when submission to such conduct is either explicitly or implicitly made a term or condition of employment, or is used as the basis for employment decisions, or when such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment. Examples of prohibited acts may include, but are not limited to:
- Sexually oriented gestures, noises, whistling, remarks, jokes, or comments about a person’s sexuality or sexual experience or directed at or made in the presence of any employee;
- Preferential treatment or promise of preferential treatment to an employee for submitting to sexual conduct, including soliciting or attempting to solicit any employee to engage in sexual activity for compensation or reward; and
- Subjecting, or threatening to subject a person to unwelcome sexual attention or conduct, or intentionally making performance of the employee’s job more difficult because of that employee’s gender.
Grievance Policy
While Greenpeace desires every volunteer to receive fair and impartial treatment, it does recognize that conflicts, misunderstandings, and problems arise from time to time. Problems or concerns may arise among volunteers or between volunteers and Greenpeace staff. Although most misunderstandings can and should be solved on an informal basis, more formal provisions exist in order to resolve difficult problems. The procedure for raising a problem or concern is as follows:
- The volunteer should respectfully and directly inform the person who is the source or cause of the problem/concern that a problem/concern exists. Those involved should attempt to resolve the issue informally and independently.
- If the volunteer does not wish to communicate directly with the person who is the source or cause of the issue or fails to satisfactorily resolve the issue after discussing it with the other party, the volunteer should then contact the project/volunteer supervisor or the People & Culture Team (see below).
Reporting. If any employee or volunteer feels they are a victim of any form of harassment, they should immediately bring a complaint to the People & Culture Team or the General Counsel. Employees and volunteers are encouraged to report harassing conduct before it becomes severe or pervasive.
Investigation. Greenpeace will investigate any complaint made under this policy promptly. All employees and volunteers should act responsibly and truthfully in making allegations, responding to allegations, and providing information in an investigation. Any employee or volunteer who is determined, after an investigation, to have engaged in harassment in violation of this policy will be subject to discipline, up to and including suspension and termination of employment or volunteer assignment. All complaints will be treated with confidentiality, to the extent possible. Greenpeace will not retaliate against any employee or volunteer who files a complaint in good faith or who participates in good faith in an investigation of a violation of this policy.
General Safety
It is the policy of Greenpeace to implement appropriate measures to ensure that employees and volunteers are working in a safe and healthy environment. All employees and volunteers are expected to make a conscious effort to be aware of the volunteer agreements.
Anyone acting in an unsafe manner or refusing to abide by our safety regulations or code of conduct will be promptly asked to leave.
Please feel free to ask questions, make suggestions, or ask for support. Other volunteers and Greenpeace staff can also be great sources of information.
Volunteer Support Staff Contact: [email protected]
Greenpeace People and Culture Contact: 202-643-8707 or [email protected]