GMB
PROTEST TO LANCASTER UNIVERSITY AT PROFESSOR SHORT LISTING AA FOR AWARD FOR
SACKING DISABLED STAFF IN PRIVATE EQUITY ASSET STRIP
GMB demo at Personnel Today award ceremony Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London
from 6.30 p.m. onwards on November 22nd 2007.
GMB today wrote a letter to Vice-Chancellor of Lancaster University,
Professor Paul Wellings, protesting at the short listing by their Professor
Sparrow of the AA in “the greatest act of corporate bullying ever seen in the
UK that targeted disabled workers for the sack” for an HR award at the
Personnel Today award ceremony in London.
GMB also announced that there would be a demonstration outside the award
ceremony at Grosvenor House, Park Lane, London from 6.30 p.m. onwards on
November 22nd 2007. A date is yet to be fixed for the demonstrations at
Lancaster University and GMB has asked the Vice-Chancellor to meet with GMB’s
disabled members who were sacked by the AA.
Lancaster University had earlier contacted GMB to say that Professor Sparrow
had pulled out of the award ceremony and as a consequence there was no reason
for the GMB to protest outside the University. However Personnel Today
confirmed that Professor Sparrow of Lancaster University is still listed as a
judge on the Personnel Today award website and that he stands by the
decisions he made as the judging process has already taken place.
Lancaster University said that Professor Sparrow had judged the entries
‘blind’ and that he did not know that what he was short listing was an entry
from the AA. Unbelievably he further claimed that the criteria did not
include how the HR function has handled other responsibilities, such as
industrial relations. Earlier this month GMB commented on the merits of the
short listing. (See note 1 to editors.)
Paul Maloney in his letter to the Vice Chancellor of Lancaster University
said: “It is an insult to the hundreds of sacked, disabled AA staff and to
the thousands who were thrown unceremoniously out of their jobs and pension
scheme for your Professor Sparrow to use his position as head of the HR
Faculty to blindly condone such scurrilous attacks on decent hardworking
people.
Professor Sparrow's late assertion that his decision was a blind decision
i.e. he was not aware of the background of any of the nominated companies is
to say the least absurd and an insult to the Faculty. It is incomprehensible
that a Professor would act in this way allowing him to bring the reputation
of your University into disrepute and will only serve to indicate to the
wider world that a commission outweighs commonsense.
Professor Sparrow, who has a big reputation, has made a very foolish choice.
He now tries to deflect this by claiming that he was playing a different game
with rules set by someone else as if he had nothing to do with it. He
accepted these rules before he got involved. He likes to take credit for his
skills in this field when things go right but blame this failure on external
events outside his control. Like "experts" the world over he likes the good
stuff but not the bad. The fact is he "blindly" short listed AA HR department
for an award. Now that we have told him the facts we expect an apology from
him and some admission that "blind" judging throws up perverse results. We
would like hear what the University thinks about this.
Disabled members of the GMB union who were sacked and staff who lost
redundancy pay because of the actions of the AA HR department are incensed by
his actions and are planning regular protests outside your University and
will protest at the award ceremony on the 22nd of November citing the
shortcomings of Professor Sparrow. The GMB union is committed to supporting
them and may well have to take our message to the broader Trade Union and
student movement. We want a public debate on the issues involved.”
1. On 2nd
November Paul Maloney GMB National Officer commenting on the report of this
award said “Professor Sparrow’s HR Centre
is sponsored by McDonalds and he has now short listed the AA for what
deserves to be known as the “McHR Award” for corporate bullying. It is a
thundering disgrace that a “so- called” independent professor endorses the
greed of the private equity elite and their asset stripping ways which
includes sacking disabled workers
Sacked
AA disabled staff will protest at Lancaster University and in London to say
that AA profits were increased by sackings, prices rises and reduction in
service to customers, and that AA has been asset stripped and burdened with
debts as follows:-
-
In
September 2007 the private equity owners took £300 million out of the AA
having owned it for less than 3 years. The five top people at owners CVC
were paid £50 million each for a year’s work.
-
The AA
has been left saddled with debts of £4.8 billion. Debt is £400,000 per
employee. Interest on this debt is £30,000 per year per employee, more than
double the pay of call centre staff.
-
3,400
of the 10,000 employees were sacked and AA patrols are forced to work
compulsory overtime.
-
GMB was
derecognized by the now short listed HR professionals who were key to
setting up a staff association that assisted them in the greatest act of
corporate bullying ever seen in the
UK.
-
Disabled and sick staff was targeted for the sack in “one to one” meetings.
Each person was given the choice of either accepting £18,000 to leave
quietly without complaint or be “performance managed” out the door with
nothing. GMB has won employment tribunal cases for unfair dismissals at AA
during the restructuring.
-
Wages
for call centre staff in
Newcastle upon Tyne,
Manchester, Birmingham and Cardiff were cut and staff are now subject to
total surveillance.
-
Prices
for many customers were also raised.
-
AA fell
from first to third for response times to customers. Night patrols were
withdrawn after seventy years.
-
Last
month it was reported that an AA member stranded in the
Yorkshire Dales for 10 hours had to be rescued by his wife travelling from
Southampton before the AA could get to him. The AA has written to him to say
“It is as a direct result of your
experience that we are fully engaged in the process of changing our (award
winning) working methods to address our failings.”
-
Last
month GMB wrote to Department of Transport complaining the AA is breaking
the law failing to comply with the tachographs and drivers hour’s
regulations for its VRS recovery vehicles.
The
short listed AA HR director has now been paid off and left AA with all the
rest of the AA directors bar one. The AA’s new owners of AA recently
announced that they plan to recruit more staff since the award winning cut
backs had been too severe and that services to customers needed to be
improved. Professor Sparrow should hang his head in shame”
2. The award event is
managed and run by Reed Business Information, publishers of Personnel Today.
The judges have been
selected by Personnel Today. It is the judge’s decision who wins the
categories and not the sponsors. The winners of the 13 different awards are
then put forward to a panel of judges to decide on an overall winner. These
decisions have all been made and will be announced at the award ceremony on
the 22nd November.
The companies can enter
themselves for any of the categories, free for two categories, £250+VAT each
for any others. The closing date for entries was
8th June 2007 and the
shortlist announced on the 6th August 2007. For the Excellence in Business
Partnering award they needed to show how they helped their organisation
improve customer service, boost competitiveness, reduce costs, speed up
delivery and drive product innovation.
