See You in Court

I am following the High Court hearings against Christine Laird, Cheltenham's former Chief Executive, with great interest. Ms Laird is being sued by her former employers for £750,000. Cheltenham claims she falsified her CV in order to get the job - some people in County Hall Taunton have muttered darkly about my qualifications too, but as anyone at the Universities of Kent and Liverpool will avow my Masters degrees are totally correct. And Plymouth University will confirm I am still a familiar face among the qualified expert staff there. In Cheltenham, however, the council is also angry at the amount of time Ms Laird took off (on full pay of course) when relationships between her and the council's ruling Liberal Democrats reached a low ebb. In fact Ms Laird was brave enough to report more than a score of allegations against the Council leader to the Standards Board. It takes true grit for a Chief Executive to face up to a politician and I should know. Stress is a real and enduring condition for we men and women at the top. It deserves proper recompense. I am therefore throwing my weight behind the raven-haired Ms Laird. I believe that Chief Executives forced out of office by small minded politicians deserve every penny they can extract. Good on her and she is welcome on my team at any stage. I have already consulted her on the advisability of Cheltenham joining the super soaraway success story that is SouthWest One. Fingers crossed!

The legacy of Nicholas Chauvin

There are several important things to remember about Napoleon. He was diminutive but had huge ambitions and a libido to match. Those who liken me to the great emperor are flatterers. He also went bald when young. But in the practise of warfare it was one of his officers who surpassed him - Nicholas Chauvin. Chauvin was so devoted to his country that he may have damaged Napoleon's chances of victory. This was the point I was trying to make in my comments to the Local Government Chronicle last week. I referred to the "instituional chauvinists" of Devon and Cornwall who have, so foolishly, chosen to reject the growing empire of SouthWest One on the grounds of seeking to keep local jobs for local people. What blinkered fools they are. Just like the institutional terrorists who lurk within our great organisations. In this new year I intend to campaign against all these accursed "ists" - the psychiatrists, protagonists, pragmatists, reflexologists, therapists, timpanists, materialists, sentimentalists, dermatologists and institutionalists. You have been warned.

I wish to complain

I am appalled by the increasing use of harassment in tbe work-place. The other day a file of papers was dropped upon my desk. The unexpected noise deeply disturbed my concentration and disrupted a crucial scheduled meeting with high-powered executives from IBM’s Institute of Electronic Government. The culprit will be duly punished. My wife has also been seriously harassed by postmen knocking too hard upon the door of the Old Barn. I will not tolerate anti-social knocking, there is a time and a place for everything. I complained to my good friend Lord Mandelson and I am pleased to report that he has now accepted the wisdom of my remarks and intends to privatise Royal Mail. This proves my thesis – the only way to maintain order is to keep on making complaints. And if anyone (and I seriously mean anyone) should dare complain about me and my conduct to the official professional body then I undertake to complain about them in even stronger terms. The difference is that I will win. Right is on my side. I have friends in very high places. I hope that is fully understood.

Time to pray

A knock in the night

This silly man, who happens to be Conservative spokesman for immigration, was held by the police for nine hours because they suspected him of leaking classified Home Office documents. Now he has the temerity to complain. What hypocricy! There is a genuine public purpose in keeping sensitive material confidential. It is done to protect state secrets and - sometimes - industrial and county documents too. We have laws about data protection. We rightly punish those who offend. Damien Green's action was foolhardy. He richly deserved the arrival of nine armed officers at his home. Other MPs might choose to reflect on this incident and wonder when their door bell will next ring.

Read All About It

My extremely able Human Resources expert, Richard Crouch, has been lending me a hand with some important correspondence. Those wicked souls in Unison are flexing their miniscule muscles again. But Richard and I have now written to all the councillors and 17000 staff with the facts:

"You will have received an email from Unison last week concerning SWOne, the recent Tribunal and the actions taken by the Council concerning the associated breach of its data. Without wishing to inflame the situation or prejudice the various investigations that are taking place, it is now incumbent on us to inform you of the Council's position.

As acknowledged by Unison, it has conducted a long campaign in Somerset against the ISiS project and the creation of SWOne and this has included Unison lodging a claim with an Employment Tribunal for an alleged failure to consult. The claim was lodged against SWOne Ltd, Taunton Deane Borough Council, as well as the County Council, despite there being no complaints made by those staff who transferred to SWOne nor those remaining within the Councils.

The original claim was a general claim concerning those staff who had transferred into SWOne, but it was only in the very last moments prior to the Tribunal Hearing, that Unison focused and re-directed its claim to staff not just from within SWOne, but also to those from the rest of the Council. This effectively meant that the potential claim for compensation went from circa £5M to one in the order of £75M. Unison's claim, if won, could have inflicted considerable damage on the Council, on its ability to deliver its services and ironically, on the Council's ability to secure the employment of many staff who deliver our services.

The Tribunal published its findings last Thursday, with the result being that Unison lost its case.

When the witness statements were exchanged a few days before the Tribunal Hearing, it became apparent that Unison had accessed the Council's payroll system and used the data of just over 300 staff. This was undertaken without the Council's knowledge or authorisation and with the intention of sharing the information in a public hearing. The Council's lawyers immediately took this up with Unison's lawyers who confirmed that it was a small number of Unison's branch officials who had done this. Unison’s lawyers also confirmed that what had not been accessed was the type of personally sensitive material that could lead to identity fraud. Such confirmation led to the Council concluding that there had been a breach in its systems and a breach of the Data Protection Act.

The Council immediately instigated its own internal investigations into the matter which are still on-going, but to date they have confirmed what the Council had been told by Unison's lawyers. As a result, it can be confirmed that one Unison Shop Steward has been dismissed and that the Unison Branch Secretary has been suspended, pending an investigation.

To add a further dimension to this issue, the Information Commissioner is now conducting his own investigations into the matter and will be interviewing a number of people under caution. This action of the Commissioner is not, as being reported, due to the Council raising a complaint to his office about Unison, but simply due to the Council fulfilling its obligation to inform the Commissioner of the breach and to reassure him of what the Council, as the Data Controller, is doing about it.

As a consequence, the Council's own investigations are running parallel to the Information Commissioner's and we understand that Unison itself is also conducting its own investigations into the matter.

The actions taken by the Council to date are entirely appropriate to the situation and in line with its policies and procedures in dealing with such serious issues. Irrespective of whether a member of staff is a trade union official or not, these policies and procedures apply equally.

Lastly, to put things into perspective, at this stage in the investigations, the Council believes that this serious breach is down to a very small number of Unison officials from within the Council’s Unison Branch. It does not reflect on others within the Branch, nor the Unison Regional Office, nor Unison nationally. As such, the Council and the Unison Regional Office are working closely on this matter and on employee relations generally to help ensure that they maintain to be as positive as they have been in the past."

That is telling 'em!

A waste of everyone's time

This irrelevant group of activists is now being dealt with firmly. The tiny handful of members will soon be substantially depleted in a continuing process of industrial relations cleansing.

"This Branch has campaigned continually to draw the attention of Councillors and senior managers to what it believes are significant drawbacks of a joint venture company to run a range of administrative services for Somerset County Council and others.

This Branch has commissioned independent research work that has provided advice to Councillors about the issues involved. It has advocated this advice to the Council and articulated its views through correspondence, presentations and discussions at Authority officer meetings, industrial relations consultation meetings and at the public speaking times of Council Boards and meetings.

This Branch has sought information from the Council about the proposals but, at all stages, access to information has been restricted such that the Freedom of Information mechanism for obtaining information has had to be used by the Branch.

In addition to considering that the general anxiety of the Branch about the proposals has been disregarded, the Branch believed that it had not been consulted properly over staffing issues at the time that the contract was signed to engage the Council with the joint venture company Southwest One and felt obliged to pursue its concern at an Employment Tribunal.

The Branch has conducted its campaign through its Branch Council of elected Branch Stewards and Officers. The Branch Secretary, as the leading officer of the Branch recognised for industrial relations liaison by the Council, has necessarily had an extremely prominent role in undertaking the campaign of the Branch, with the full support of the Branch endorsed at regular Branch Council and other meetings.

This Branch Council is extremely alarmed at the way in which its Branch Secretary and some Stewards have been treated by the Council since the closure of the Tribunal hearing. It believes that the treatment has been disproportionate and considers that an atmosphere of victimisation and corporate bullying has been created by the Council, so undermining the proper conduct of industrial relations. This conflicts with recent assurances given by senior Human Resources managers to regional and local UNISON officials that they wanted to build good industrial relations.

This Branch Council expresses its whole hearted confidence in its Branch Secretary, that he has undertaken his role in the campaign in good faith, with commitment and to the best of his ability.

This Branch Council anticipates that the regional and national tiers of UNISON will also be alarmed at the impact on industrial relations of an inadequately addressed instance of corporate bullying and instructs its officers to liaise with the South West Regional Secretary to ensure that the position is resolved in accordance with UNISON’s policies. "

If these absurd luddites want to be taken seriously they should behave seriously.