Thursday 2 July 2015

Brent Council Race Equality Award condemned

Following yesterday's revelation that Brent Council was a finalist for a Race for Opportunity award the organisation has received messages from local people about the council's record in this area. Here are two of them:


I am not sure why Race for Opportunity is surprised that BAME representation is decreasing when RFO itself is actively contributing to this state of affairs.

Black staff in Brent are reeling from the shock, as am I, of hearing that RFO has shortlisted Brent Council as a finalist for its RFO Award.

One only has to enter "race discrimination Brent council" in a search engine box to find out how the council's director of HR (acting in cahoots with her friend the chief executive, in further cahoots with the council's employment solicitor, aka director of HR's business and personal partner) was found guilty by an employment tribunal of race discrimination and victimisation of a black manager.

One has only to read some of the Wembley Matters blog articles to find out how disgusted Brent residents are at the council's total failure to investigate this HR director's wrong-doing and initiate disciplinary proceedings. LIN

All of the miscreants in this disgraceful case are desperate to redeem themselves on their CVs for their future employment prospects (the HRD left at the end of June with a payoff, nearly a year after the tribunal exposed her unacceptable behaviour, her partner has followed her and the chief executive's contract will be up some time this month.

They will undoubtedly be thanking RFO profusely that they can now say that they steered the council to being shortlisted for the award. Absolute shame on Race for Opportunity, an organisation that I have hitherto admired.

Googling stuff is so easy to do these days, RFO - not always accurate I know, but such a good idea to avoid promoting the very people that would be anathema to the professed RFO values. Even "Private Eye" has run parts of this dsgraceful story, so it seems only RFO is in the dark.

I will be copy- posting this blog piece on the Wembley Matters blog.

Nan Tewari
former Branch Secretary, Brent Nalgo (now Unison)

I write in disbelief regarding the the nomination of Brent Council for an award from your organisation....it's not April Fools Day yet is it??  Your spokesman is reported as saying that Brent puts " race equality at the heart of their activity"....ouch!!!  Are you aware of the following facts? 

1. Brent was found guilty of racial discrimination in the case of Rosemarie Clarke.   
2. The judge stated that Brent was guilty of bullying, intimidation and constructive dismissal.  
3.The decision in the case was so damning that the judge said that " Brent had no reasonable prospect of success" on appeal. Yet still Brent wasted Council taxpayer monies on fruitless appeals. 
4.The compensation award against Brent is likely to be made in September - perhaps coinciding with your awards ceremony. The exemplary damages are likely to be significant, and the total award against Brent is suggested to be between £500k and £1m.  
5. Brent engaged in a farcical internal review - led by Council Deputy Leader -of its H.R.practices after the case, despite calls throughout Brent for an independent review.   

I would ask you to reflect on your nomination. I am copying this e-mail to interested community parties. 

 Cllr John Warren

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

THANK YOU Cllr John Warren! It is both BRAVE and COMMENDABLE for you to speak out with integrity. (But, PLEASE WATCH YOUR BACK as there are a lot of manipulating BULLIES in BRENT who TARGET WHISTLEBLOWERS.)

At last, a councillor with principles - a rare breed since CD and her Cronies took over Brent!

Anonymous said...

As someone who has been trying to get Brent Council and its councillors to face up to this issue since the judgement in the Rosemarie Clarke Employment Tribunal case became public in September 2014, I can confirm that this is not the first time that Councillor Warren has tried to get the case aired publicly.

Whenever he has tried to raise the issue via a motion at a Full Council meeting, it has been voted down, and not just by all of the Labour councillors!

When he asked for Cllr. Butt to be given the opportunity to answer, as an item of "any other urgent business" at the end of the Full Council meeting in early March, the two important questions on the Rosemarie Clarke case that I had put to the Council Leader in February 2015, the then Mayor refused to allow the matter to be heard.

We all need to put pressure on our local councillors, of whatever party, to face up to the harm done to the Council and its staff by Cara Davani's time in charge of Brent's Human Resources, and to do so openly and transparently.

Philip Grant.

Anonymous said...

Looks like D breeder has all the councillors well trained.

Anonymous said...

We need more councillors with the B***'s to speak out!

Anonymous said...

We need more councillors with b***'s to speak out!

Anonymous said...

Giving Butt/Davani/Gilbert this award would be consistent with the report choosing Heathrow for expansion. This tells west London residents that another runway and more aircraft will actually mean less noise than at present.

"War is Peace; Freedom is Slavery; Ignorance is Strength" as the man said.
Black is White if we say so too.

And a council which colludes with, protects and pampers racists and their cronies puts "race equality at the heart of their activity" and wins a prize for it.

Mike Hine

Anonymous said...

Ovaries too?

Anonymous said...

Surely Nan's and Cllr Warren's emails should be sent to HSBC who is sponsoring the event, surely they wouldn't want their business sullied by Brent's atrocities

Anonymous said...

Wasn't one of Rosemarie Clarke's complaints that she was yelled at and bullied by Davani ( head of 'people management) at a meeting about getting recognition from Investors in People (organisation which aims to 'optimise performance by championing best practice in people management').
Make it up? You really couldn't.

Mike Hine

Anonymous said...

On a lighter note, have a look at this
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Davani

Anonymous said...

There have been numerous reports that managers and lesser employees within Brent yell and bully other employees, including vulnerable users, but it appears that excuses have been made and/or reports get ignored, to protect the favoured few. An investigation into such things, since CD was employed, could prove interesting..
This makes Brent being nominated for an equality award an appalling farce.

Kilburn Unemployed Workers Group said...

Maybe the Race for Opportunity award to Brent could be a 'wooden spoon' type award as Computer Weekly reportedly awarded to the Government's 'Universal Credit' project as a waste of taxpayers money?

More seriously, Brent Council's waste of taxpayers money in challenging cases in which they have no chance of winning puts into perspective the debt that some council tenants have got into by challenging adverse decisions made against them.

Anonymous said...

You mean 'o***ies', this is a FAMILY subversive left-wing, traitorous blog.

Nan. said...

Just so you know, I have flagged this up with Business in the Community (who runs the Race for Opportunity scheme). I am assured that CEO Sandra Kerr OBE will call me some time next week.

To their credit, BITC did publish my piece on their blog site and more contributions will help highlight just how distrubed the real anti-racists in Brent actually are.

http://raceforopportunity.bitc.org.uk/news/ethnicity-gap-leadership-continues-rise

Anonymous said...

More wind - surely not!?

Anonymous said...

Thanks, Nan!

Anonymous said...

Apt :)

Anonymous said...

Methinks the traitors are the opportunistic cronies that have that have subverted the good name of Brent at the expense of honest tax paying residents.