If the news that Muhammed Butt had been chosen to headup the Equalities brief by London Council was not enough to declare irony dead, jaws dropped with a clang at the Brent Civic Centre today when the following notice was spotted on the Council Intranet:
Meanwhile unconfirmed rumours are circulating that the rule, devised by Cara Davani, prohibiting workers leaving the employ of the Council from taking their ipads with them, had been changed just before she left.
Brent shortlisted for Race for Opportunity award
We have been recognised for our commitment to increasing
Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) representation in the workplace.
The council has been named as a finalist in the
Transparency, Monitoring and Action award category at the Race for
Opportunity Awards 2015. LINK
The awards celebrate outstanding practice, innovation and
dedication to race equality and inclusion in UK workplaces. The winners
will be announced at the Awards Dinner on Tuesday 6 October at the London
Hilton, Park Lane.
Sandra Kerr OBE, Race Equality Director, Business in the
Community, said: "Congratulations to Brent Council on being named as
a finalist in the Transparency, Monitoring and Action Award category at
the Race for Opportunity Awards 2015.
One Brent worker said, 'Imagine our faces when we saw this. We were speechless at the Council's barefaced cheek in putting themselves forward.'"They are taking action to create a workplace culture which puts race equality at the heart of their activity and have demonstrated a strong commitment to ensuring that ethnic minority talent has equal opportunity to progress at every level."It's a huge positive to see that they recognise the UK's changing demographics and are addressing the need to reflect the clients, communities and customers they serve, and I hope other organisations will learn from their example."
Meanwhile unconfirmed rumours are circulating that the rule, devised by Cara Davani, prohibiting workers leaving the employ of the Council from taking their ipads with them, had been changed just before she left.
14 comments:
This is outrageous. We can't allow this to happen! Unfortunately there is only 1 other organisation up for tis particular award so I suggest all Wembley Matters readers email the organisers of this award to let them know just how poorly Rosemarie Clarke was treated and how the council was the very opposite of transparent in its dealings.
They can be emailed at information@bitc.org.uk, you can tweet them @RaceforOpps or to contact them via Facebook search for BITC Diversity.
Roll on Rosemarie's remedy hearing.....
Brent is obviously suffering from a very bad case of amnesia, but residents and staff are not.
Davani most probably filled in the application.
An insult that flies in the face of equalities!
Also remind them the council is a pint of guinness.
I posted onto their blog as follows.
"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.
http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/09/tribunal-finds-employee-suffered-race.html
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 undoubedly 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 would be laughing but this is a serious matter :(
A hood-winking manipulator certainly had a hand in it!
Unbelievable! Are the RFO living on the same planet? Obviously do little or no research before selection.
They should be red with embarrassment! Shame on the lot of them.
Just goes to show that there is still no decency in Brent Council. Bareface cheek. Staff must feel like this is a slap in the face. Shouldn't they be trying to clean their acts up instead of selling themselves to the world as something they wre most definitely not
Of course the Council should be cleaning up its act, rather than pretending that they are better than they really are.
It is our elected councillors who should be insisting that things are "cleaned up", and the more that individual local residents bring it to their attention, by letters, emails and face-to-face, the more chance that they will start to realise that they cannot continue "in denial".
You may shrug your shoulders and say "they will never change", but lets try it and see whether it works. If our councillors continue to take no notice, they will only have themselves to blame if they are voted out of office at the next local elections.
Philip Grant.
Let's thank WM for giving local residents a voice & HOPE that Carolyn Downs will be the instrument of principled democratic change that honours the seven principles of leadership in public office.
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