Berwick Town Council - REVEALED THE Original email sent on 26th Sept 2013, proposing grievance action against me for alleged bullying. (Note - a personal email was passed on to the Clerk after a contingent including Cllrs Lang and Robertson engaged me in a conversation and offered to act as peace brokers / stitch up merchants? following the full Council Meeting on 23rd Sept when I criticised the handling of Portas..) This proposed grievance was neither pursued, nor withdrawn, finally brought last month then withdrawn at the 11th hour (and I have been refused an explanation after having this hanging over me, at considerable stress, for 12 months). From: Susan Finch Date: 26 September 2013 Cllr Hunter I have been passed the attached copy email, which you have seen. In the light of this piece of correspondence, which is in addition to sustained and persistent undermining of my personal abilities and professionalism, in public and in private, amounting to harassment and bullying, I have taken advice from both the Monitoring Officer and the legal profession on the most effective routes for redress. On the basis of the advice I have received I am proposing to institute formal complaints against Councillor Hill, and by extension Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council, on the following matters: 1. The contents of the attached email, put in writing to a third party, includes false information, damaging to me. I am advised that I have valid grounds for a private action for libel, but that in any case it is without doubt a matter of bullying and harassment in the workplace, and potentially a matter for an Employment Tribunal, which would be in parallel to a Code of Conduct complaint. I am copying this email to Cllrs Lang, Robertson and Elliott, as I also find it offensive that these members should have engaged with Councillor Hill in a discussion about me, in public and on licensed premises and I have to question whether this is appropriate behaviour for holders of public office. 2. Councillor Hill has, since May (but never during the preceding five years) undertaken a systematic challenge to my authority, my reputation, my abilities and my judgement, directly by email, publicly in meetings (including those where she would have been aware the matter could be reported by the press), and both directly and by inference on social media. In the sense that bullying is an abuse or misuse of power through means to undermine, humiliate, denigrate or injure the recipient, I regard Councillor Hill as having contravened the Code of Conduct, which is a matter for complaint to the Monitoring Officer; and is also exposing the Council to a damages claim at an Employment Tribunal. 3. Councillor Hill has, by her public statements at the Council meeting on 23 September, which have been reported by the press, brought the Council into disrepute. The Council is a corporate body, which had made a legitimate and valid decision, and by her statement she was casting a slur on all her fellow members as well as on me. The Monitoring Officer agrees that this should be viewed as a Standards complaint. I am also re-visiting all my records of correspondence during my brief illness in July, as in the light of Councillor Bettison’s recent ill-advised email, I am increasingly of the view that the Council’s mishandling of this is also a matter for complaint against the Council. You will no doubt wish to consider the Council’s position before responding; I have also copied this to Councillor Simpson, as Chair of the Staffing Committee. Sue Finch TOWN CLERK Berwick-upon-Tweed Town Council 5 The Chandlery Quayside Berwick-upon-Tweed TD15 1HE
Posted on: Tue, 30 Sep 2014 18:25:44 +0000