RACE EQUALITY & HUMAN RIGHTS CHIEF - RACIST & SEXIST? 
Over the last decade Equality & Human Rights Commission (formerly known as CRE) and its various chiefs have been accused of being racist, see, Dr Deman v CRE & others. Mr. Trevor Phillips, a Tony's new crony was appointed CRE chief when his predecessor, Mr Gurbux Singh caused public embarrassment when he pleaded guilty to criminal offence for assaulting a police officer. Equality watchdog faces discrimination lawsuit from pregnant employee.
Case causes fresh embarrassment for Equality and Human Rights Commission boss Trevor Phillips Dr Deman v CRE, Trevor Phillips & Others
Trevor Phillips is already under pressure over internal disputes and allegations of financial irregularities. The government's equality watchdog, set up to combat all forms of prejudice at work, faces a sex discrimination lawsuit this week from a female member of its own staff.
The case is a fresh embarrassment for Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who is widely expected to be forced to step down when his contract ends in autumn following a string of internal disputes and allegations of financial irregularities. Several of his fellow commissioners have indicated they are likely to stand down if Phillips, who is close to several senior Zionist Labour politicians, including Lord Mandelson, is
Trevor Phillips is already under pressure over internal disputes and allegations of financial irregularities. The government's equality watchdog, set up to combat all forms of prejudice at work, faces a sex discrimination lawsuit this week from a female member of its own staff.
The case is a fresh embarrassment for Trevor Phillips, the chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who is widely expected to be forced to step down when his contract ends in autumn following a string of internal disputes and allegations of financial irregularities. Several of his fellow commissioners have indicated they are likely to stand down if Phillips, who is close to several senior Zionist Labour politicians, including Lord Mandelson, is
reappointed for another term.
The sex discrimination case brought by Brid Johal, an aide to Phillips's political adviser Faz Hakim, is scheduled to be heard at an employment tribunal in south London this week. It is understood her case centres on allegations that she was not told of a promotion that came up while she was on maternity leave and was therefore unfairly treated compared to other staff.
A spokesman for the commission declined to comment in advance of the tribunal case but another source said it was braced for public embarrassment.
Hakim is expected to give evidence on Johal's behalf and the case risks exposing broader questions about the recruitment policies adopted by the commission, which is supposed to police other private and public bodies in rooting out discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, religion, sexuality, age and disability.
"There is something oddly old-fashioned going on in terms of plum jobs at the higher level," added the commission source.
Ministers are due to announce later this month whether Phillips will serve a second term and the controversy over the commission's appointments and staff management are thought to have counted against him.
Phillips faces a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) within the next few weeks which is expected to qualify its accounts, which the Observer recently disclosed they had refused to sign off.
The irregularities identified by the NAO are understood to centre on a handful of staff made redundant and paid off when the former race watchdog – the Commission for Racial Equality, which Phillips ran – was wound up, but then rehired by the successor body. Senior figures, including Phillips, are likely to face questioning in parliament over what happened.
Sources close to Phillips, however, said he did not want to quit the commission, adding: "This is a decision for government. But frankly Trevor is doing the job until someone tells him to stop doing it. There is no change as far as we are aware."
Ministers are now understood to be seeking a face-saving exit for Phillips which could see him transferred to another quango. The recent departure of Neil Kinnock from the British Council after his wife, Glenys, was made a minister, opened a possible vacancy but would mean a significant drop in salary for Phillips.
New row over equality chief's dual role
The sex discrimination case brought by Brid Johal, an aide to Phillips's political adviser Faz Hakim, is scheduled to be heard at an employment tribunal in south London this week. It is understood her case centres on allegations that she was not told of a promotion that came up while she was on maternity leave and was therefore unfairly treated compared to other staff.
A spokesman for the commission declined to comment in advance of the tribunal case but another source said it was braced for public embarrassment.
Hakim is expected to give evidence on Johal's behalf and the case risks exposing broader questions about the recruitment policies adopted by the commission, which is supposed to police other private and public bodies in rooting out discrimination on the grounds of sex, race, religion, sexuality, age and disability.
"There is something oddly old-fashioned going on in terms of plum jobs at the higher level," added the commission source.
Ministers are due to announce later this month whether Phillips will serve a second term and the controversy over the commission's appointments and staff management are thought to have counted against him.
Phillips faces a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) within the next few weeks which is expected to qualify its accounts, which the Observer recently disclosed they had refused to sign off.
The irregularities identified by the NAO are understood to centre on a handful of staff made redundant and paid off when the former race watchdog – the Commission for Racial Equality, which Phillips ran – was wound up, but then rehired by the successor body. Senior figures, including Phillips, are likely to face questioning in parliament over what happened.
Sources close to Phillips, however, said he did not want to quit the commission, adding: "This is a decision for government. But frankly Trevor is doing the job until someone tells him to stop doing it. There is no change as far as we are aware."
Ministers are now understood to be seeking a face-saving exit for Phillips which could see him transferred to another quango. The recent departure of Neil Kinnock from the British Council after his wife, Glenys, was made a minister, opened a possible vacancy but would mean a significant drop in salary for Phillips.
New row over equality chief's dual role
Trevor Phillips's firm rejects watchdog's demand to remove public-private 'conflict' from its website
Trevor Phillips, chair of the UK's equality watchdog, is at the centre of a
damaging stand-off between its lawyers and his business partner after concerns were raised that his private business activities expose him to a conflict of interest.
Phillips is a co-founder and 70% shareholder in the Equate Organisation, a specialist consultancy that gives paid advice on race issues. He stepped down as director last year after critics complained that his private business activities could compromise his public sector role.
But Equate's website still prominently displays a picture of Phillips. It claims: "Trevor is one of the leading experts on migration in Europe. He has, for over two decades, been advising private companies ... and remains one of the most widely listened-to advisers to government and public bodies in Europe. He is the Chair of the UK's Equality and Human Rights Commission."
Emails released to the Observer under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that Thelma Stober, the director of corporate law and governance at the EHRC, wrote to Equate in January asking it to drop all references to the commission from its website, a request the company has declined to carry out.
Stober told Charles Armitage, Phillips's business partner, that Equate's references to the commission "raises the issue of conflict of interest for Trevor and the commission. I raised this with Trevor prior to Christmas and he advised me to write to you as he was no longer a director of the company. I should be most grateful if urgent steps could be taken to amend the Equate website in accordance with Trevor undertaking [sic] and remove all reference to the commission please." In an email copied to Phillips, Armitage declined, replying: "It would be an admission of some kind of wrongdoing on Trevor's behalf, which I presume is not your intention." In response to Stober's suggestion that she would be happy to discuss the matter, Armitage replied: "Thank you for your offer, but I'm not sure how this would benefit the running of one of my companies."
The commission sought to clarify Phillips's role in December 2007, after work he did for Channel 4 was made public following the Big Brother race row, when several contestants ganged up on Shilpa Shetty, the Bollywood actress (see Bride &Prejudice at http://cemkumar.googlepgaes.com). "Mr Phillips should decide whether he wishes to be a management consultant or whether he wants to chair the Equality and Human Rights Commission," Michael Rubenstein, co-editor of Equal Opportunities Review, wrote last year.
Phillips has appeared acutely aware of the need to ensure that there was no blurring of the lines between his public and private roles. In an email to Armitage last year, he requested that references to a potential project involving the BBC, which was never realised, were taken off a website. Phillips wrote: "The problem is that I have sat in on discussion about the work we're doing on the BBC, and if we actually were working with the BBC I should have withdrawn; this makes it look as though I'm misleading the commission."
In a letter dated 21 December 2007, the commission wrote to Phillips, outlining his renegotiated contract "now that you will be working 3 and half days a week for the commission". The letter, marked "confidential", acknowledges "it is expected that up to six times a year, you will use the commission offices at 3 More London to host meetings exclusively associated with your interests outside commission business".
In a letter dated 21 December 2007, the commission wrote to Phillips, outlining his renegotiated contract "now that you will be working 3 and half days a week for the commission". The letter, marked "confidential", acknowledges "it is expected that up to six times a year, you will use the commission offices at 3 More London to host meetings exclusively associated with your interests outside commission business".
A commission spokeswoman said Equate had agreed to remove a weblink to the watchdog and it was happy for "matters of fact" to be published on the company's website. The EHRC recently came under fire after the National Audit Office refused to sign off its accounts. A number of senior staff, including its chief executive, Nicola Brewer, have left the organisation.
Phillips to head giant equality commission
Trevor Phillips, Britain's outspoken race relations chief, is set to be handed a powerful new role as the country's first official champion of women, gay people and other groups who suffer discrimination.
The head of the Commission for Racial Equality is poised to be named as the chairman of a new 'super-watchdog' that will also combat bias against a range of other people: ethnic minorities, the elderly and the disabled.
Phillips's pending appointment as leader of the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR) will see him given tough powers to stamp out discrimination and highlight 'problem areas' requiring tough action.
The move will be controversial. Phillips's critics claim he is too close to Tony Blair to run a politically neutral body, has not done enough to help ethnic minorities, and courts publicity by making 'grandstanding' interventions on sensitive issues such as racial segregation. Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, has accused Phillips of having moved so far in his views that he was 'pandering to the right' after the CRE chairman said the Notting Hill Carnival was not a triumph of multiculturalism.
Phillips, Blair's choice for the new post, is understood to have been picked from a shortlist that included Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights body Liberty, ex-union leader Margaret Prosser and Naaz Coker, chair of the British Refugee Council.
No comments:
Post a Comment