Councillors reinstated three workers who had been sacked by managers and did a deal over a disciplinary matter in at least one case to prevent binmen going on strike during Brighton Pride in 2019.
The decisions overruled managers and undermined them, it is claimed, and contributed to the climate of bullying, harassment and intimidation at Cityclean, the council’s rubbish and recycling service.
Councillors overturned the sackings at “personnel appeals panel” or “member appeals panel” hearings, according to a disclosure made under the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.
But recent abuses of the panels will not be investigated, the council said, as senior councillors prepare to vote to scrap what should be an independent check on disciplinary and dismissal procedures.
Brighton and Hove City Council said: “Between February 2019 and February 2024, three staff were dismissed then re-instated following a personnel appeals panel.”
The panels were made up of three councillors – or members of the council – even though the chief executive is the head of paid service and responsible in law for employment matters.
There have been suggestions that this arrangement – councillors hearing appeals – made political interference possible.
A report by an independent barrister, published by the council last year, described evidence of political interference. To read the full report, click here. And a previous secret report, commissioned by the council in 2019, reinforced the suspicion in a section headed “Doing deals”.
The secret report – by the widely respected former trade union leader Gerry Doherty who died last year – looked into the case of former GMB rep Dave Russell who was based at the Cityclean depot in Hollingdean.
Managers did not want Mr Russell to continue working at the depot because of how he behaved. The GMB said that the decision was anti-union and based on his effectiveness as a rep.
The GMB held a ballot and planned to strike during the annual Pride festival in the summer of 2019, with unofficial action having already contributed to a backlog of uncollected rubbish.
Mr Doherty said that an attempt appeared to have been made to do a deal over Mr Russell’s employment in breach of the council’s policies and procedures.
He suggested that it was agreed in advance that a “hearing” would “find an outcome of no case to answer against Mr Russell”.
It was not clear from Mr Doherty’s report whether, in the case of Mr Russell, the hearing would involve councillors.
Brighton and Hove City Council is not alone in having member appeals panels to provide an extra layer of checks and balances or oversight to ensure that employees are not dismissed unfairly.
But today the appeals panels are due to be scrapped by the council’s Labour-dominated Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee in response to three reports on the troubles at Cityclean.
The first report – a peer review by the Local Government Association (LGA) in 2017 – touched on the toxic and dysfunctional relationship between the council and the GMB at the Hollingdean depot. It also supported the preference of senior officers for a switch from decision-making by committees made up of councillors to a cabinet instead.
The LGA recommended ending the use of member appeals panels and steps “to re-set the council’s relationship with its trade unions”.
The second report was researched and written by Mr Doherty in 2019 as part of the resolution of the dispute that threatened a bin strike during Pride. According to a separate FoI disclosure by the council, it cost £44,000.
With reference to the proposed scrapping of member appeals panels, he cited the LGA saying: “Elected members also need to provide a climate that allows managers to manage.”
He urged “all parties … to reflect on this recommendation (that elected member involvement in operational HR matters should cease) and consider whether it should now be acted upon”.
The third report – by the barrister Aileen McColgan – was commissioned after the local elections last May when Labour won a majority.
It found that GMB reps made threats and used violence at the depot in Hollingdean, including threats to stab people, bringing weapons into the depot and showing them to staff.
Miss McColgan, said: “Aggression has become culturally engrained.”
An independent security firm was brought in to search the site after staff spoke out and found a haul that included knives, hammers and metal bars. Some staff claimed these were tools required for their work.
Miss McColgan’s report said that complaints by staff “contained multiple allegations of sexual harassment, race discrimination, discrimination based on disability, bullying and intimidation”.
Her report, which cost £266,000, alleged that GMB reps shouted in managers’ faces and “made implicit and explicit threats to use physical violence and in fact (used) such violence”.
With reference to the 2019 dispute, Ms McColgan also said: “A number of witnesses indicated that there were close links between the Labour administration and GMB reps within the council and concerns were expressed to me that highly confidential information passed between the administration and GMB reps within the council.”
She wrote: “I heard concerns about individuals dismissed for gross misconduct having been reinstated by member appeal panels.
“Such panels are provided for by council procedures and are available to employees irrespective of union membership but concerns were raised with me about the propriety of allowing panels whose members may have received (and declared) GMB funding, to ‘completely, unashamedly just reverse officer decisions’ relating to GMB reps and / or individuals described to me as being particularly protected by the GMB reps within the council.
“Another witness told me that having politicians sitting on the panels for collective disputes and dismissal cases ‘further enhances the GMB power to subvert normal council processes’.”
She added: “Disciplinary dismissals have been overturned on appeal to panels of councillors. One manager told me that, until recently, Cityclean management expected their decisions to be overturned.”
And her report said: “I recommend that the council ceases to operate member appeal panels.”
The evidence in all three reports relates to individuals – councillors, officers and union officials – and their subversion of the member appeals panels’ proper processes rather than the existence of the panels themselves.
The report to the council’s Strategy, Finance and City Regeneration Committee proposes scrapping the member appeals panels.
But it does not acknowledge the improper deals between councillors and union reps – nor does it specifically address how to deal with any further attempts to interfere in due process.
It appears to ignore a crucial line in Miss McColgan’s report: “Witnesses also described a high degree of interference from politicians in disciplinary processes at Cityclean.”
In response to the FoI request about this, the council said: “No further investigation is proposed.”
The decision on whether to scrap member appeals panels is due to be taken at a meeting at Brighton Town Hall this afternoon (Thursday 25 April).
People should not complain when “inbred” performances and results are removed and prohibited, Councillors are tax payer funded not Union funded therefore should be separate in function, ie, a councillor should not be working in mediation if he/she is a member of the same union being looked at, NEPOTISM is the title of previous events leading to re-instatement, not mediation.
Which is why councillors will shortly be removed from the disciplinary and appeals process.
Think this is redolent of the “Closed Shop” practices of the 70’s?
I feel very sorry for anyone if they were to gain employment with this poison chalice of a company.
What’s the point of scrapping the panels if it’s the people on them that’s the problem. The fact nobody is investigating that bit should surely be ringing alarm bells. The staff at Cityclean have had a raw deal. If GMB reps behaved badly that def needs to be addressed, but if councillors (who might have received party donations from the union) behaved badly too, then why is that bit being left out. The whole thing stinks.
And these are the same people that tell us the Tories are corrupt. Hahahahahaha
I remember during the bin strikes how the GMB leaders and Dave would claim they were being bullied by managers which would be duly reported in the local media.
I wonder how hard Dave and his GMB comrades laughed when they showed the news reports to the management
I remember when some councillors kindly offered to store peoples domestic waste at their own homes during by one strike. 🤣
A “bent” Labour council! Who’d have every thought it? 😏
Which is why Employment Tribunals were invented?
GMB should be stripped as the union for city clean. The higher ups at GMB should have removed the toxic few from their books. It shows GMB to be nothing more than a mafia.
You’re so right, I’m so glad that this finally came out. Unfortunately, there were a few very bad, narcissistic, apples within the GMB, and in Cityclean. I’m hoping that those involved have finally lost their jobs and credibility. They need to be held accountable and there should have definitely been a thorough investigation into the councillors involved and official statements apologising from the GMB, too. The union is an absolute joke.