Formal complaints of bullying at Coventry City Council have shot up alarmingly – and nearly £350,000 of taxpayers’ money was spent last year amid cuts on so-called ‘gagging clauses’ for staff
There were 12 formal complaints and grievances relating to bullying and harassment last year at the authority.
It compares with six the previous year, and none in 2016, reveals the council’s own data released in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FoI), seen by the Coventry Observer.
Yet Coventry council has mysteriously, unlike many other organisations, stopped publishing FoI responses to the public’s FoI requests.
This non-disclosure to the public on its website over the last year has prompted accusations that the council is covering up, and at least acting against the spirit of the legislation.
Throughout 2018, the council spent £344,352 on so-called Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs).
There were 15 NDAs last year, compared to four in 2017 (costing taxpayers £40,208) and seven (costing £86,922) in 2016.
NDAs involve an employee and employer agreeing to keep confidential matters relating to a dispute, usually alongside a pay-off for a departing member of staff.
Critics say they are a mechanism to effectively buy the silence of an ex-employee, and avoid their formal dismissal, as part of a ‘compromise agreement’. It is often an alternative to an organisation being taken to a employment tribunal, heard in public.
The number of claims against the council filed at an employment tribunal also rose to five “plus two multi-claimant cases” in 2018 – from three in 2016, the council’s FoI response adds.
The revelations follow claims raised by opposition councillors last month concerning what opposition leader, councillor Gary Ridley, termed ‘endemic bullying at the top of Coventry City Council’.
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2019 11:48 am