Storm over a teacup! Two lifeboat men sacked for cheeky mugs
IT was intended as a light-hearted gesture to add a bit of fun to their tea breaks.
Volunteers at a lifeboat station ordered some novelty mugs with male crew members’ faces superimposed on to women’s bodies in raunchy poses.
But what was meant as a harmless joke between colleagues has turned into a storm that will make hearts sink, with almost a third of the crew being sacked or resigning in protest.
The row in the North Yorkshire town of Whitby is said to have left emergency cover stretched to near-breaking point.
The six mugs were apparently bought over the internet as Secret Santa gifts at Christmas. But when a visiting manager from the Royal National Lifeboat Institution found them in a cupboard, she failed to see the funny side and two men were this week given their marching orders.
The pair, said to be trainee Joe Winspear, 26, and crewman Ben Laws, 36 – who has 15 years’ service with the RNLI – were dismissed by phone on Tuesday. Four more of the station’s 22 volunteers, named locally as navigator Steve Boocock, helmsman Martyn Cairns and trainees Neil Cook and Simon Rhodes, resigned in protest.
Sources claimed last night that a seventh crew member was threatening to resign if his sacked colleagues were not reinstated.
Locals are furious that the unpaid volunteers, who they say have saved hundreds of lives over the years, have become casualties
‘Extreme political correctness’
of ‘political correctness’. Dorothy Clegg, 86, a former local councillor who was twice mayor of Whitby, said: ‘I’m outraged. God help us all if they can sack people for this kind of thing. You see worse things than these mugs on TV every night. This is the worst thing to happen to the RNLI here since the 1861 Whitby lifeboat disaster, when all but one of the crew died.
‘Whatever happened when they were on their breaks did not interfere with their duty when lives were at risk.’
More than 1,500 had signed an online petition against the sackings before it was taken offline because it was said to infringe on an ongoing employment dispute.
The RNLI says it is still waiting to hear if the two crew members it stood down intended to appeal their dismissals.
A serving member of the lifeboat crew, who asked not to be named, said: ‘It started over nothing. It’s a load of rubbish. The crew are all upset. There were only six mugs. They put them away and I never even saw them. But there was nothing really rude. It was just a bit of a joke.’ Another source close to the lifeboat station told The Sun: ‘Two of the crew are women and told the managers that they were not offended.’
Over the years, the crew members involved have taken part in a string of dramatic rescue operations. These included rescuing four crew from the fishing trawler Defiant when it ran aground in 2010. In 2008, the Whitby crew were involved in desperate attempts to save two men and a woman who died when the pleasure boat Last Call sank at the mouth of the harbour.
The crew member added: ‘I don’t know who they are going to replace them with because training up a new volunteer over the years costs thousands of pounds.’ When the manager discovered the mugs, the crew were allegedly told to destroy them and told the matter would go no further. But disciplinary action began in March after the men were told the mugs constituted a ‘safeguarding breach’ because they might be seen by children on school visits.
RNLI officials also investigated WhatsApp messages between crew members.
The crew were yesterday backed by locals, some of whom were rescued at sea. Boat owner Bryan Clarkson, 62, said: ‘These men are heroes but it seems that’s no protection against extreme political correctness.’ Fisherman Harold Smith, 62, added: ‘What’s happened to these lads is pathetic. They put their lives on the line and can’t even have a little bit of fun on their tea break. It’s disgusting.’ Mr Smith said he had been rescued twice by the crew – once when his rudder was smashed and his vessel was in danger of being sunk by rough seas.
Another boat skipper, Alan Roe, 35, called the RNLI’s action ‘a witch hunt’. ‘These heroes have saved hundreds of lives,’ he said.
The RNLI last night defended its action as part of efforts to create a ‘safe and inclusive environment’. The charity would not reveal the content of the WhatsApp messages. A spokesman said: ‘We can confirm the investigation focused on the production of inappropriate material of a sexual nature and associated social media activity directed at an RNLI staff member.’