{"id":16014,"date":"2018-08-28T17:05:07","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T16:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=16014"},"modified":"2020-11-12T12:58:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-12T12:58:16","slug":"gagging-orders-westminster-council","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=16014","title":{"rendered":"‘Cop-out option’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tory-controlled Westminster Council has spent more than \u00c2\u01411m on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gagging\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 orders, prompting criticism from many including Unite.<\/p>\n

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According to information obtained by Left Foot Forward<\/a> in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the council spent \u00c2\u01411.56m in the last four years on Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) which stop current or former employees from criticising their bosses. NDAs, which are often accompanied by substantial payments, have been criticised as effectively silencing whistle-blowers.<\/p>\n

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In the last year alone, Westminster Council spent \u00c2\u0141380,000 on 13 NDAs, amounting to an average of about a \u00c2\u014130,000 payment per person.<\/p>\n

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Unite regional officer Onay Kasab highlighted that the gagging orders are \u00e2\u20ac\u015bvery, very common across local government\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 and added that \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe case of Westminster city council is just the latest example which is to be strongly deplored.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bGenerally, the majority of local authority staff are being required to sign such orders even when being made redundant and not having gone through any prior complaint, grievance or disciplinary process,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he pointed out.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need to highlight this very worrying development across councils in the UK. In the redundancy cases, it stops staff speaking out about the impact of job losses on services which is in the public interest.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

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Indeed, other councils have this year been in the spotlight for their use of gagging clauses, including the Isle of Wight<\/a>, which spent more than \u00c2\u0141500,000 on settlement agreements with council and school employees since 2013. Wiltshire Council spent \u00c2\u0141275,000<\/a> in the last four years on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098compromise agreements\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 while East Riding Council spent \u00c2\u01411m on similar agreements.<\/a><\/p>\n

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A BBC investigation in 2016 found that collectively, UK councils spent more than \u00c2\u0141200m on settlement agreements,<\/a> most of which included gagging orders.<\/p>\n

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Councils aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only ones who plough significant amounts of money into non-disclosure agreements.<\/p>\n

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The House of Commons was found to have spent \u00c2\u01412m on gagging orders for former staff which drew widespread criticism. Victims of the Windrush scandal<\/a> were likewise paid for their silence by the Home Office for fast-track compensation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kasab pointed out that the most insidious use of gagging orders are in cases involving bullying, sexual or racial harassment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt means that employers can sweep the issue under the carpet without dealing with \u00e2\u20ac\u0098rogue\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 managers or institutional problems,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bOften the member of staff will feel that they have no choice, but to sign.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He gave the example of a recent case on the Woolwich Ferry \u00e2\u20ac\u015bregarding serious sexual harassment where part of the resolution involved a gagging clause on the aggrieved member.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

He pointed out too that about a third of staff on the Woolwich Ferry will be made redundant. The workers have long had serious safety concerns about the future of the ferry — but now they will be prevented from voicing these concerns after being forced to sign gagging clauses.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kasab criticised local authorities that will, he said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015boften assess a case on financial terms – how much will it take to settle a case, along with a gagging clause, rather than dealing with the underlying issue. A gagging order is the easiest cop-out option.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe strongly believe that local authorities are setting money aside that should be used for vital, currently underfunded, services, such as social care, but is being used to pay for these settlements to save the council\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s collective \u00e2\u20ac\u0098face\u00e2\u20ac\u2122,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe this is the proper use of public money.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis is a classic case where more transparency and openness are required into this whole unseemly process.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tory-controlled Westminster Council has spent more than \u00c2\u01411m on \u00e2\u20ac\u0098gagging\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 orders, prompting criticism from many including Unite.   According to information obtained by Left Foot Forward in a Freedom of Information (FoI) request, the council spent \u00c2\u01411.56m in the last four years on Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) which stop current or former employees from criticising their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[998,1000,999,1001],"wps_subtitle":"Unite slams councils spending millions on gagging orders that silence whistleblowers","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16014"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25937,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16014\/revisions\/25937"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}