Explosive claims of ‘Me Too moment’ for Siptu
● Biggest union ‘waged campaign of destruction’, says whistleblower
A well-respected trade union official’s 30-year career was destroyed after she informed Siptu management of serious wrongdoing including that union activists were on the verge of a “Me Too moment”, it will be alleged in a WRC case later this week.
Her potentially explosive case is set to rock the country’s biggest union with a litany of allegations of serious wrongdoing by senior management, including psychological abuse and a claim a leading manager had hired someone to be his “eyes and ears”.
In a statement in response to queries from the Sunday Independent, a Siptu spokesperson said the trade union “is vigorously defending the management and staff of the union against all the allegations made against them”.
The case, taken by Ger Malone, a well-known official from the southeast, and the former chairperson of Siptu’s staff representative council, is due to open in Waterford on Thursday.
It will hear Ms Malone’s allegation that, despite an exemplary career, she was victimised and suffered “insidious coercive tactics to psychologically harm” after she made a protective disclosure alleging serious wrongdoing by senior colleagues.
Ms Malone claims she had become a whistleblower after representing another woman who, it was alleged, had been targeted and befriended by a senior Siptu manager and then hired to be his “eyes and ears” in the organisation. The woman’s contract was set to be terminated but she was instead relocated.
After learning the details of the case, Ms Malone claims she informed management that “serious and significant” wrongdoings had occurred.
But, according to a 280-page submission to the WRC, her career was subsequently “shattered”.
“There has been a campaign of destruction launched against her,” according to the submission.
“It is no coincidence that she is female, there is embedded gender discrimination and all of the perpetrators are men and it is evident that they have been conspiring together to sabotage her career.”
The experienced official claimed she and her colleagues had also received no support from Liberty Hall in a particularly difficult industrial relations situation they faced with a public sector employer.
“There are serious mental health and well-being issues here. I have one member who has attempted suicide over bullying,” she had told her superiors in Siptu.
Activists and members were angry, many had no trust in the union and were “on the verge of a ‘me too’ moment”, according to the submission.
A senior Siptu official hired a woman to be his “eyes and ears” within the trade union organisation, it will be alleged in a potentially explosive case due before the WRC later this week.
The hearing, which is scheduled to open in Waterford on Thursday after numerous delays, is expected to hear a litany of allegations about Liberty Hall management’s approach to staff.
The allegations will include that the union is close to a “Me Too” moment, that management used “insidious coercive tactics to psychologically harm” an official who spoke up about wrongdoing and that one member embroiled in a difficult dispute had even attempted suicide after receiving no backing from Liberty Hall, according to a 280-page submission seen by the Sunday Independent.
“Siptu is vigorously defending the management and staff of the union against all the allegations made against them,” said a spokesperson when contacted about the case.
The case, which is being taken by a longstanding and highly respected trade union official, will hear claims that she believes her career in the country’s biggest union has been sabotaged and destroyed after she learned about and subsequently reported these and other incidents of what she claimed was serious wrongdoing to senior management in the union.
Ger Malone, who has worked for Siptu for 30 years and had been the long-time chairperson of its Staff Representative Council – a type of internal trade union for its own staff – is seeking five years’ salary as compensation for victimisation she alleges she has endured after making a protected disclosure.
“On February 28, 2020, Ms Malone attended a meeting to represent a colleague who had made a ‘Protected Disclosure’,” according to a submission she has made to the WRC.
Malone’s colleague had been informed that their fixed-term employment contract was being terminated.
The protected disclosure made by the woman “was serious and significant in that it disclosed ‘wrongdoings’ relating to a senior member of the management who had targeted, befriended the discloser and offered them a job as their ‘eyes and ears’,” Malone’s submission states.
“The termination was reversed and the colleague was transferred to a different location in another county,” it said.
Concerned by what she had learned, Malone subsequently made her own protected disclosure about the matter but alleges that she has been penalised and faced huge problems ever since.
“We will show that management have used insidious coercive tactics to psychologically harm Ms Malone,” it said.
“Ms Malone’s career has been sabotaged and her 30 years of exemplary work for workers has been destroyed by those that want to keep doing wrong,” said the submission.
Malone is “a staunch trade unionist whose career has been sabotaged because she has been disclosing the wrongdoings she has experienced and come across during the course of her work from 2020,” said the submission.
She is now seeking five years’ salary as compensation for victimisation – the maximum that can be granted under protected disclosure legislation.
“Her employment rights are being eroded covertly, evident from all of the treatment that she has been subjected to. She has been severely penalised, with her standing being diminishing [sic] bit by bit. There has been a campaign of destruction launched against her. It is no coincidence that she is female, there is embedded gender discrimination and all of the perpetrators are men and it is evident that they have been conspiring together to sabotage her career,” said the submission.
Malone, a well-respected trade union activist in the southeast of the country who has represented workers in many disputes over the years “has been subjected to unquantifiable mental manipulation causing her to suffer work-related anxiety to such an extent that she can hardly function”.
“Her family have suffered unquantifiable mental anguish and fear,“said the submission.
Malone’s case also outlines serious allegations of bullying and “union busting” activities by public-sector employers that she claims she and others had to face with no support from senior officials.
Evidence will be provided “of the internal wrongdoings that she came across in her capacity as chairman of the Staff Representative Council and the wrongdoings she came across during her assignments to the community and local authority sectors in her capacity of industrial organiser”, Malone’s submission said.
In one email sent by Malone to Siptu general secretary Joe Cunningham in May 2022 about a particularly rancorous industrial relations issue in which she was involved, Malone stated that both she and the shop stewards at the employer were “at break point”.
“Our stress levels are through the roof. There are serious mental health and well-being issues here, I have one member who has attempted suicide over bullying.
“I have lost one shop steward who resigned over it all, another is currently out with very high blood pressure and other issues, and I don’t know how much more any of us can take.”
The submission shows that senior officials in Dublin pushed back strongly against a series of claims by her that they were not providing backing to Malone and the shop stewards and that her line manager in Liberty Hall threatened her with disciplinary action for refusing to attend a meeting with him and another senior manager.
She claims that management subsequently conspired to ensure that she lost an election to retain her position as chairperson of the SRC.
“Her ideals, sacrifices and hard work on behalf of members and workers spanning 35 years have been shattered,” said the submission. “Her career has been shattered by the perpetrators of significant wrongdoings.
“She believed she was doing the right thing by making these protected disclosures at the time and that is what a real trade unionist would do.
“The disclosures were made in good faith and were made to stop the damage that these practices were and are having on staff and members.”
It was claimed that Malone made the disclosures to effect change and “as a deterrent to such behaviours into the future”.
The submission states that Malone is convinced that the protected disclosures she made show “multiple extremely serious wrongdoings” and that Siptu’s National Executive Council “failed to execute their duties by ignoring the protected disclosures sent to them.”
“We suspect no member of staff would ever lodge a PD [protective disclosure] into the future because all the penalisation suffered by Ger Malone has been so publicly done and she ls known as a real staunch trade unionist and if they could get away with doing this to her, they can get away with doing it to anyone.”
SHE IS A REAL STAUNCH TRADE UNIONIST, IF THEY COULD GET AWAY WITH DOING THIS TO HER, THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH DOING IT TO ANYONE