Support the Kirklees 15 at UNISON conference - Believe women & how can we allow allegations of bullying & harassment to be not even investigated???

This is incredible and a shameful stain on our union but 15 UNISON members (14 women and 1 man) have made complaints of bullying and harassment against the current lay President of UNISON. This includes threats of violence. This man has since been dismissed by his employer because of these complaints but the UNISON NEC have decided to not only ignore longstanding rules that unemployed members cannot stand for such offices but have also decided to drop all charges against him. See what the Kirklees 15 say about this and lets support them at NDC conference.

Check out their Facebook page

"We have seen some branches have passed this Emergency Motion to Conference which of course we fully support. It will have to go through the process of Standing orders to see if it will be allowed onto the Agenda of Conference.

Emergency motion for UNISON conference

This conference opposes the decision of the March 15 meeting of the National

Executive Council to summarily dismiss the serious complaints made against the President of the union by 15 union members and branch office staff without any explanation or reasons given.

Disgracefully, while the complaints were first received by the national union in 2019 (whilst Dave Prentis was still General Secretary) - over two and a half years later the complainants still do not know how the union investigation assessed the issues that they raised and now, on what basis that they were dismissed.

Regardless of the contestability or otherwise of the outcome of the parallel process of the disciplinary action taken by Kirklees council against the President our union must be seen to take allegations of bullying and intimidatory behaviour seriously and reach its own independent conclusions on whether the allegations have substance and how the union should respond.

Unison’s own investigation officer stated that there was ‘a case to answer’ and that an internal Unison disciplinary hearing should take place, which was also supported by the Lay Chair of the NEC committee which deals with union disciplinaries.

We call on the NEC to re-open the investigation to give the opportunity both to the complainants to make their case and to the President to defend his position and for both sides to be given full access to its results.

Support the Kirklees 15 - Believe Women (& Men) who report bullying and harassment & give them Justice

Donate here for the Kirklees 15

"On behalf of the Kirklees 15, we are fundraising to help us build awareness of our campaign for justice in our Union, Unison. We are made up of Unison members and branch employed staff past and present.

Our Complaints of bullying and harassment against the Branch Secretary of Kirklees Unison were made 2.5 years ago, the Union dragged their feet in investigating our complaints, but the investigating officer did recommend the case moved to a hearing. The NEC of Unison have met on March 15th, 2022, and summarily dismissed all our complaints without any basis or reason why.

This is in our opinion a dreadful abuse of power and corruption, totally ignoring everyone of us who have actually suffered horrendous sexism and misogyny over a number of years. The Hearings must be carried out, and we are appealing to all Unison members to support our cause.

The Funds will be used to help support our colleagues attending Local and National Delegate Conference, in accommodation and travel fees, for leaflets and materials to be produced to put our case. Also, funds for any future legal case".

inUNISON - Beating the bullies

 

Check out this post in the new website inUNISON "by members for members" sign posting a great guide by UNISON on standing up to bullies and harassment in the workplace. 

by Carol Jones 1 minute read

"Supporting members in the workplace is a key role for activists and for UNISON. Sadly, one of the most common problems members face is bullying and/or harassment by managers or by colleagues.

There have always been managers who use bullying and/or harassment to get their way, and being a union member is the best method to protect yourself against them.

But as cuts bite, and in the current situation where COVID may also be causing staff shortages, members may come under increasing pressure to cover gaps in services: pressure which can amount to bullying.

Check out UNISON's guidelines on combating bullying and harassment in the resources section of the dedicated webpage on the UNISON website: https://www.unison.org.uk/get-help/knowledge/discrimination/bullying-and-harassment

Don’t protect your staff from Harassment???

It is perhaps unsurprising that employers do such stupid things from time to time when you consider the quality of advice they can receive from their “professional advisors”.  A case in point is this load of old nonsense from solicitors Towers & Hamlins published on the “Inside Housing” website here regarding cyber harassment of employees by clients or residents. 

“...employers, including housing associations, have a duty of care to their staff. Richie Alder, partner at law firm Trowers & Hamlins, says they must demonstrate they have taken reasonable steps to protect staff but are under no obligation to investigate harassment claims.

‘Reasonable steps could include putting a filter on emails for instance, and if necessary, reporting the matter to the police,’ he adds. ‘In most cases an employer would not be required to do anything in terms of investigation, although it might if it feels the organisation itself is under threat.’

So there is no duty or obligation for employers to investigate a complaint from one of its employees that they are being harassed by a client or resident?  Apart from this advice being  morally bankrupt, there is a clear and specific duty under health and safety legislation to risk assess in order to protect staff and then take action.  If any organisation fails to investigate harassment and this harasser then went on to harm or even murder an employee I would expect that employer to be charged under criminal law.  Putting not only that organisation at risk of fines but also possible imprisonment for individual managers and directors.  Furthermore huge fines can be levied on directors personally for such inaction and they will be liable to pay not the employer or any liability insurer. 

Needless to say – I am writing to Inside Housing.  

Anti-Bullying Week

This is a little late but just to point out that this week (16th to 20th November) is the UK Anti-Bullying Week. It’s not just about kids at school but bullying at work is a huge problem and unchecked can destroy peoples lives. IMO effective trade union representation is the best way to deal with bullying at work but far, far too many workers think they can rely upon employment law to protect them. People sometimes get the impression from reading the tabloid trash that you gets loads of money if your manager forgets to say hello to you in the morning! In practice this is simply not true and the overwhelming majority of serious bullying and harassment tribunal cases fail. Even if you win - often the awards are incredibly low.

Check out the ACAS site here and worksmart website to find out which union you should join (obviously it goes without saying that you should choose UNISON if you work in public services).

UNISON Online Bullying & Harassment Survey

An “On-line” confidential survey has been launched by UNISON into bullying and harassment at work. Check out this link here. UNISON obviously believes that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect while at work. Bullying and harassment are major problems which “...leads to ill health, work related stress and can also be the cause of untold misery to workers. This is not just bad for the workforce but is also bad management practice”.

UNISON has commissioned Portsmouth University to do this research and aim to use it to raise issues with the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and for branches to use it in negotiations with their employers.

This is an excellent initiative and just the sort of evidence based support that hard pressed branch safety reps need on the front line.

This sort of thing is simply “proper” and practical trade unionism.