Dead Sheep Regulator

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The sad news about Denis Healey makes this as good a time as any to share my thoughts about the Equality and Human Rights Commission - Scotland's equivalent of a 'dead sheep' regulator.

I registered a complaint with EHRC Scotland some weeks ago about a recruitment advert from the GMB trade union which required potential candidates to be supporters of the Labour Party.

A strange and potentially unlawful criterion to include in a job description if you ask me, hence my approach to EHRC which apparently conducts all of its investigations in private and is under no obligation to inform anyone of the outcome - even the original complainer.  

So to my mind EHRC Scotland is about as scary as 'dread sheep', to borrow Denis Healey's memorable phrase, because no one can take a public watchdog seriously when it lacks the ability to bark never mind bite. 

Trade unions are important civic institutions in Scotland, but what ordinary union members and the wider public expect is that trade unions act with integrity and are accountable for their behaviour.

Whereas at the moment in Scotland we have trade unions that are tribal, politically partisan and hugely biased towards the Labour Party even though the great majority of ordinary union members support the SNP.      


Letter to EHRC - 24 September 2015

Dear EHRC Scotland

GMB Scotland

I refer to your letter dated 17 September 2015 and our subsequent telephone conversation regarding the EHRC investigation into issues I have raised about GMB Scotland's recruitment procedures. 

As I understand the position, EHRC Scotland is saying that I have:
  • no locus whatsoever in the ongoing investigation
  • no right to consider what GMB Scotland has to say in response to my complaint
  • no right for these matters to be discussed by members of the EHRC Scotland Committee  
  • no right to be informed of the eventual outcome even if, as I believe, a brazen act of unlawful discrimination has taken place
I have to say I regard this as an extraordinary way for a public regulator to behavenot least because the issues involved deserve to be aired in an open and transparent manner instead of being dealt with in secret effectively, as if my original complaint has somehow become the private property of EHRC Scotland and the GMB trade union.

As a result, rather than waiting weeks or perhaps even months for EHRC Scotland to complete its investigations, I plan to raise my concerns with MSPs, MPs, the media and other opinion formers, especially as the findings of your enquiry may remain private and effectively under wraps on a permanent basis.

In my view this is ludicrous and completely unsatisfactory state of affairs, and to paraphrase a former Labour chancellor of the exchequer, Denis Healey, being investigated by EHRC Scotland looks a lot to me like being savaged by a dead sheep except that all the 'action', if that's the right word, takes place in private and behind closed doors. 

I would ask you to pass this letter on to members of the EHRC Scotland Committee along with copies of my previous correspondence and original letter of complaint.

Kind regards


Mark Irvine   

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