Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities
WLRI SUSPENSIONS FACT SHEET
The university is aware of all the points in this fact sheet
1 Since the election of Jawad Botmeh as staff
governor (with more than 50 per cent of the first round votes) three members of Londonmet’s WLRI have been suspended and two more have spent six hours under investigation for their roles in the two appointment panels that took place in 2008 and 2010.
2 The Working Lives Research Institute was
set up in 2002 to ‘undertake academic applied and socially-committed research emphasising equality and social justice into all aspects of working lives’.
3 The WLRI has raised £7m from external
funders since then, and has employed some 50 staff over the years.
4 Like all Heads of Department, the WLRI
Director had the authority to make casual appointments where vacancies had been approved by HR, provided the individual had the right to work.
5 In October 2008 a PSG4 administrator
at WLRI met Jawad Botmeh once and told him about the WLRI’s system of appointing temporary staff – which was to email everyone who had expressed an interest in working for us offering them the opportunity to apply whenever casual posts became available.
6 When Jawad sent in his expression of
interest Max Watson (not a union rep at the time) raised Jawad’s suitability with Steve Jefferys.
7 Jawad had pleaded not guilty to conspiracy
to cause explosions at his trial in 1996. Found guilty, he maintained his innocence of the charge and served nearly 14 years in prison before being released. He acknowledged this lengthy prison sentence in his covering letter to the WLRI, and his CV showed he had also been awarded an OU sociology degree and an MA from Coventry University; he had also served as prisoners’ representative for equalities.
8 No university procedure existed saying
Steve Jefferys should treat ex-offenders like Jawad any differently to any other applicant. Believing he should treat Jawad fairly, Steve told Max to treat his application for a 0.5 FTE casual three-month job the same as any other.
9 Steve never met Jawad until after an
interview panel of three WLRI staff (two more senior administrators who would work with him and a senior academic), but then, in conformity with the university procedures he ascertained that Jawad, a Palestinian national, was entitled to work. He was shown Jawad’s ID documents and leave to remain and a letter from his lawyers confirming he had the legal right to work in the UK.
10 Steve has not been a member of any
political party or campaign organisation for the last 30 years, and in the three most recent parliamentary elections voted Labour, LiberalDemocrat and Green. Steve remains a committed socialist and trade unionist and a supporter of human rights, social justice and equal treatment. On the Academic Board in 2011 he spoke and voted in support of the VC’s strategy of going for a low level of fees and of reducing the number of UG and PG courses.
11 In April 2010 Jawad applied for a
permanent post and completed the application form whose confidential section, including his declaration of having been sentenced for conspiracy and having been given a sentence of 20 years, went to HR.
12 After interview HR wrote to the Home
Office for confirmation of his right to work. This was incorrectly denied, and HR on May 10 2010 dismissed Jawad instantly.
13 Steve Jefferys then spoke to the Acting
Head of HR and to the VC by phone. In a 30-minute exchange with Professor Gillies, Steve explained that the reason the Home Office were clearly mistaken, and Jawad’s lawyers’ letter should be followed, was because he could not be deported back to Palestine because of his prison conviction. The legal firm concerned, Birnberg Peirce & Partners, are known as a firm specialising in the defence of human rights.
14 Despite this argument, and his being
lobbied by 15 WLRI staff members the following day, the VC refused to intervene other than stating that if the Home Office did indicate they were wrong, he would authorise the reinstatement of Jawad and repayment for the time he had lost.
15 A few days later the Home Office changed its mind and confirmed Jawad’s right to work and the university reinstated him with continuity of employment. In 2010 Jawad’s Palestinian nationality and his being an ex-offender were known to both HR and by the VC. Neither considered this significant at the time.
16 In March 2012 Steve Jefferys writes a
WLRI research working paper criticising the assumptions behind the university’s outsourcing strategy (which it called ‘shared services’).
17 In January 2013 Jawad is elected staff governor.
18 In January 2013 the VC sends round an
all-staff email accusing Max Watson, the UNISON chair, of bullying staff.
19 On January 31 Jawad is asked (and
agrees) not to go into a Board of Governors meeting. A governor explains the Board is setting up an inquiry into the issue.
20 On February 7 HR announce the suspensions of Jawad and Max.
21 On February 18 the VC asks Jawad to
prove the university can have trust and confidence in him as an employee.
22 On February 20 Lyn Link (then HR Director) tells Steve he is suspended.
23 On February 22 the UCU and UNISON put a compromise proposal to the VC.
24 On February 25 the VC announces Lyn Link will be leaving at Easter (end of March).
25 On March 1 Jawad is asked to attend a
second hearing with the VC on Tuesday March 5.
PUBLIC MEETING
Resinstate Jawad, Max and Steve Tuesday March 5 Resource Centre, Holloway Road, next to Waitrose From 6 to 8 pm Speakers include UCU Higher Education Official and UNISON Assistant General Secretary