How a sex abuse scandal rocked UK business group
As the CBI is left reeling following a slew of allegations from female staff, Simon Foy asks: Can the organisation survive the fallout?
On a chilly Wednesday morning in a central London conference centre last month, Tony Danker, head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), told business leaders that they must embrace progressive values to remain competitive.
The former Guardian Media Group executive urged those assembled at 8 Northumberland Avenue to adopt “active diversity and inclusion strategies” if they want to attract young talent. The CBI’s “Future of Work” conference was loaded with high-profile speakers from business and politics, including Gillian Keegan, the Education Secretary, Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner and Ian Muldowney, the operating chief at BAE Systems.
Danker said: “More than ever, it is a competition about values: the values a company holds and the values of work it promotes. Much of this is driven by the different generations now in the workforce, and their expectations of how business should contribute to their own lives and wider society.”
Five weeks later, Danker’s paean to progressive values now threatens to expose a thread of hypocrisy running through the CBI, a group that styles itself as Britain’s premier lobby group for big business.
In that time, Danker has stepped aside amid an inquiry into claims that he harassed a female colleague; while ministers and Andrew Bailey, the Bank of England Governor, have paused engagement with the CBI after separate allegations against other colleagues of serious sexual misconduct, including a claim of rape, and widespread inappropriate behaviour.
With some members reviewing their association with the CBI, the lobby group is facing an existential crisis as it awaits the verdict of an
‘At lunchtime one day he said to me: “Everyone should be bullied once in their lifetime”’
independent investigation being conducted by the City law firm Fox Williams. It begs a simple question: can the CBI survive?
The most serious claim, which was first reported in The Guardian, was an allegation by a female employee that she was raped by a senior colleague at the CBI’s 2019 summer boat party.
She reported the incident to a manager but said she felt “let down” when bosses urged her to seek counselling rather than take further action. She subsequently did not report the incident to the police.
The CBI said it found no evidence or record of the alleged rape but has asked Fox Williams to include the claims in its investigation.
At the same boat party, a different manager was accused of attempted sexual assault, which the CBI did investigate. The alleged perpetrator in question left the organisation. The CBI last week declined to say whether it had referred that matter to police.
One former female employee told The Daily Telegraph that the boat party was “notorious” and she was aware of a colleague being sexually harassed on the dance floor at the event.
She adds that the organisation had a blokish, public schoolboy culture. In the investigation by Fox Williams, complainants also describe a “toxic culture” of “unchecked misogyny” at the organisation.
The former female employee says she had direct experience of this culture and suffered at the hands of a “rather toxic” male colleague who was popular internally and who repeatedly made offensive comments towards her. She says: “At lunchtime one day he said to me: ‘Everyone should be bullied once in their lifetime’.
“There was nothing concrete to report to HR and, therefore, not much protection from his aggression. I know this is nothing in comparison to being raped but it did have a negative impact on me, my ability to perform well at the CBI and my career over all,” she says. “This unwanted attention also played a deciding role in me ending my work contract early and being reluctant to go back to the corporate world.”
The CBI said last week that its board expects to have preliminary findings and recommended actions from the first phase of the Fox Williams investigation “soon after Easter”. The law firm was initially brought in to examine alleged impropriety by Danker but the investigation was extended to include the new allegations against other colleagues.
That original complaint involves a female employee who claims Danker sent her unsolicited messages over a period of more than a year, as well as making unwanted verbal remarks.
He is also alleged to have been viewing employees’ personal Instagram profiles.
When the allegations first surfaced, Danker apologised for causing “offence or anxiety to any colleague”, saying it was “completely unintentional”.
Yet for an organisation that relies on companies paying it a fee to lobby politicians and regulators on their behalf, the scandal threatens to derail the CBI’s business model and raises questions about the future of private sector engagement with ministers. The body took in £22.2m from membership fees in 2021, nearly 90pc of its total revenue.
The engineering company RollsRoyce, EY and Marks & Spencer all made public statements raising concerns about the allegations last week, saying they have expressed their views directly with the CBI.
Many executives say privately that they will wait for Fox Williams to deliver its findings before deciding on what action to take.
An insider at one FTSE 100 insurer that has worked closely with the CBI says: “We are following the investigation closely and any decision we make will be based on the outcome. We have also raised our concerns with the CBI directly.” With the Government currently refusing to engage with the organisation, its promise to members that it will “proactively speak to government about issues and opportunities, ensuring firms of all kinds get to use their voice” is clearly impossible to achieve.
In its latest annual report, the CBI cites a number of risks to the viability of the organisation. One of those risks is: “[A] lack of diversity [that] damages the CBI brand and limits development.”
A CBI spokesman said: “It’s deeply regrettable and completely unacceptable that any staff member would feel poorly treated or unsafe. The CBI has treated and continues to treat all matters of workplace conduct with the utmost seriousness.
“We would encourage those who wish to raise matters of this nature to report them to the independent investigation.”