UK: Network Rail discrimination claim

[John Ashworth]

Network Rail faces claim staff paid off over discrimination

• Equality watchdog to look into union's allegation
• Male manager 'made jokes relating to gender or race'

* Peter Walker
* guardian.co.uk, Sunday 18 October 2009 21.49 BST

The government's equality watchdog has begun an inquiry into Network Rail after claims the train infrastructure operator spent millions of pounds of public money paying off senior staff forced out by discrimination and management bullying.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), which has the power to examine whether companies meet legal obligations over discrimination, has written to Network Rail following accusations made by a trade union and an MP.

According to claims made in files already seen by the EHRC, a series of staff departures was linked to the behaviour of one particular Network Rail executive, who was accused of grossly sexist behaviour, including telling a subordinate several times that she should recruit more men as too many female employees were taking maternity leave. The files, also seen by the Guardian, show that no action was taken against the executive even though an internal investigation concluded that he made "repeated innuendoes, jokes and comments in relation to gender or race".

Network Rail says the matter has been fully investigated. The Department for Transport (DfT) says it is not responsible for staffing matters within the company, which is run as a not-for-profit private enterprise despite being funded by taxpayers. Were the EHRC to unearth proof of discrimination it would be embarrassing for both.

The investigation follows claims in the House of Commons in March. Jim Devine, a Labour backbencher with close links to the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) union, which represents many Network Rail white-collar staff, used parliamentary privilege to name the company's head of HR, Peter Bennett, as being at the centre of a "culture of fear and bullying".

Devine said that during 2007 and 2008, 95 people dismissed by Network Rail, which took over responsibility for Britain's central rail infrastructure in 2002 following the collapse of Railtrack, had confidentiality clauses attached to their departures. Given the £64,000 maximum sum awardable for unfair dismissal, the departures could potentially have cost up to £6m, he told MPs.

Documents viewed by the EHRC as part of its investigation contain allegations that one unnamed senior Network Rail manager routinely demeaned female colleagues, asking one to sit on his knee and saying to another, who was newly returned from holiday, "take your top off and show me your strap marks". On another occasion, it is claimed, the man asked about the hair colour of a female job applicant as, he said, there were already too many "dizzy blondes" in his department.

The executive was also accused of racist language on one occasion, referring to one employee as a "silly *** black bitch".

The documents also allege that the man was particularly opposed to maternity leave, questioning on one occasion the "ridiculous company policy" that this could last up to one year, before being told it was law. At another time he allegedly said: "I don't mind the women in my team getting married as long as they don't have children."

The claims come within evidence collected for an employment tribunal for another senior HR manager, Vicky Lydford, who alleged she had been marginalised following her own maternity leave. Her case was among those settled through a pay-off with an attached confidentiality clause. Lydford received a reported £500,000.

The EHRC has also been shown Network Rail documents from an internal grievance procedure from late 2007 in which Lydford complained about the executive's behaviour. This concluded that the executive had an abrasive management style and "a tendency to say politically incorrect things from time to time".

It added that the man "has made repeated innuendoes, jokes and comments in relation to gender or race. There is no evidence that this is intended to be offensive but some individuals have been offended by them." Nonetheless, the report recommended no disciplinary action be taken against the manager, a conclusion endorsed by a non-executive director who reviewed the case.

A Network Rail spokesman confirmed the organisation had received a letter from the EHRC "seeking assurances of our equality and HR policies".

"We wrote back to them offering to share information with them on a confidential basis and to reassert that Devine's allegations, sponsored by the TSSA union, are without merit and were fully investigated independently some three years ago. We have yet to hear back from the commission as to whether they'd like to take up our offer," the spokesman said.The TSSA said it welcomed the prospect of an EHRC inquiry. "Breaches of employment law are wrong in any circumstances and it is even worse when millions of pounds of taxpayers' money is spent on covering them up," a spokesman said.

While Network Rail is structured like a commercial listed company, its publicly funded status means it is accountable to around 100 "members", drawn from the rail industry and the public, rather than shareholders. It is also exempt from freedom of information requests.

A DfT spokesman said: "As a private company, independent of government, Network Rail is responsible for its own industrial relationships and staffing matters."