ic Wales - Assembly minister accused -
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Published on: 1/13/2004
Last Visited: 1/13/2004
Today we can reveal the story of how Gower Labour AM Mrs Hart, a former trade union official and an ex-chair of the Wales TUC, urged top officials to oust Charles Willie from his role as head of the Assembly's Equality Policy Unit.
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Urging senior Assembly officials to remove Mr Willie from his job.
Repeatedly sidelining and undermining him.
Insisting that subordinate members of his staff should offer equality advice when it was his job to do so.
Thanks to the Data Protection Act, Mr Willie was able to obtain documentary evidence of top-level meetings concerning him that the Assembly Government never expected to see the light of day.
Last year Mr Willie, a magistrate and a civil servant of 24 years standing, took the Assembly to an Employment Tribunal alleging he had been constructively dismissed from his job after he failed to be reappointed to head the Equality Policy Unit when the post was regraded.The Assembly denied constructive dismissal.By the time the case was due to go ahead, he had amassed a wealth of documentary evidence to support his contention that he had been treated unreasonably.
Negotiations with Mr Willie's union-appointed solicitors were led on behalf of the Assembly by external solicitors and its top civil servant Sir Jon Shortridge, the Permanent Secretary.
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Material presented to Mr Willie's solicitors by the Assembly's lawyers included provision for a confidentiality clause and a requirement that he should return all the material released to him under the Data Protection Act.But in a letter to The Western Mail last night Sir Jon said the Assembly did not want Mr Willie to sign a confidentiality agreement.
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Mr Willie would not accept either condition, instead agreeing to a lower out-of-tribunal settlement of £12,000 to ensure he would be free to disclose details of how he was treated.He has now passed the material to The Western Mail.
At the heart of the allegation that Mrs Hart exceeded her authority in the treatment of Mr Willie is the principle that ministers should not interfere in Civil Service personnel matters - a point acknowledged by the minister herself last year.
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Yet the documentation obtained by Mr Willie shows how as well as repeatedly urging senior officials to remove him from his job, Mrs Hart had a specific individual in mind to replace him.
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A minute of the meeting states, "Peter said Edwina Hart was pressing him to put Charles to work on the Partnership Council's equality project, and to replace him with an individual currently working for South Wales Police".
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Mr Willie has no idea what "the Partnership Council's equality project" was, and says such a move was never put to him.He says he understands that the person Mrs Hart wanted to take over his job was subsequently asked to leave his police post.
Mr Willie says that from very shortly after Mrs Hart became chair of the Assembly's equality of opportunity committee, she sought to sideline and undermine him.The documentation obtained under the Data Protection Act shows how she repeatedly insisted on getting advice on equality issues from others, including subordinate members of Mr Willie's own staff, when it was a major part of his responsibilities to offer such advice.
On two occasions, complaints made against Mr Willie by members of the Muslim community were found after investigation to be unfounded.Yet it was left to Mr Willie to insist on the first occasion that a letter should be written to the complainant by a senior Assembly official saying the allegations had been rejected.On the second occasion, it took nine months to write a similar letter, by which time Mr Willie had failed to be reappointed head of the Equality Policy Unit when the post was regraded.When Mr Willie refused to accept a subordinate role he was made redundant.
Mrs Hart's apparent belief that Mr Willie was not up to the job was not borne out by his annual personal appraisal reports, in which for three years running he was awarded a B rating, indicating that his work performance was "significantly above normal requirements of the grade".In fact, his manager recommended him for promotion.
Ironically, Mr Willie recently won a personal achievement prize in the Diversity Awards for Wales, which were initiated by the Assembly.He now works as a freelance consultant in diversity issues.
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Mr Willie received praise for his work from two of Wales' leading equality rights practitioners.
Cherry Short, the Commissioner for Racial Equality, said, "Charles Willie is a fine public servant who has done a tremendous amount of good work.
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And Disability Rights Commissioner Dr Kevin Fitzpatrick said, "I have always found Charles to be very hardworking and always enjoy working with him."
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