Nurses union accused of ‘hounding out’ officer
A former part-time policy officer has revealed she felt forced out of her job with Scotland’s Royal College of Nursing, after being investigated for more than two months for contributing to an academic paper on changes to Census questions on sex and gender.
Lisa Mackenzie, onethird of policy group Murrayblackburnmackenzie, said the period during which she was under investigation was “the most stressful experience” in her career – and that she was never told which RCN Scotland policies and procedures she had breached.
Ms Mackenzie, who joined the nurses’ union as a part-time policy officer in 2017, said the “Kafkaesque” investigation began when she alerted her employers to a paper she co-authored on the Scottish Census.
After sharing the academic paper with her managers before it was published, she was called into an “urgent meeting to which I was invited to bring my union representative”.
She adds: “I was told that I was being investigated for potential disciplinary action as a result of breach of my contract and for failing to adhere to the RCN’S declaration of interest policy.”
No disciplinary action was taken, but the tipping point that prompted her resignation, she said, was a meeting when her manager “suggested that the best way forward might be for me to reflect on my ‘values’.
“I handed in my notice with immediate effect.”
An RCN spokesman said: “An investigation took place two years ago solely into the potential breach of contract.
“No-one was investigated for their political or private views. No further action was taken.”