We publish here a report from Socialist Appeal supporters in PCS, who highlight the successful campaign to reinstate victimised trade unionist Kevin Smith. An employment tribunal has officially ruled that Kevin was unfairly dismissed by the Home Office for his trade union activity and has ordered for Kevin to be reinstated.
An employment tribunal has ruled that the Home Office unfairly sacked a trade union rep because of his union activities and has ordered his reinstatement.
Regular Social Appeal readers may recall articles on the PCS union campaign to get the young union rep reinstated in the Home Office after they sacked him. The union campaign got media coverage as well as support from local MPs. Industrial action was taken by members at his workplace calling for him to get his job back and an employment tribunal was launched.
Home Office management in Liverpool’s Capital Building, dismissed local rep Kevin Smith, 26, after he complained that managers had victimised him because of his trade union activities.
He had offered to go to mediation with the four managers concerned, but all four refused to participate in the process – instead launching their own complaints against him, resulting in his sacking just before Christmas 2012.
His union PCS immediately launched a campaign for his reinstatement, and members at his local office voted to take industrial action in March 2013.
The tribunal ruled that Smith’s claims that he was unfairly dismissed on grounds related to union membership or activities “were well-founded and succeeded” and ordered that he should be reinstated to his job in the Home Office.
PCS has reported its delight that the stance taken by Kevin Smith, and by PCS, has been vindicated by the employment tribunal.
The union have now drawn the employer’s attention to this result along with the judge’s quote that the Home Office were “dismissive of the rules in place in the interests of justice”. As part of their Fairness at Work campaign PCS have called for the employer to commit to work with the union to reverse the current culture of bullying, victimisation and harassment in the Home Office.
