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PLATFORM - A Safe Pair of Hands?
137/John Boggan
John Boggan represents UNISON on the CPBF National Council
A government weapons expert dies alone in a wood. He has cut his wrists to end his life, to escape the pain. In the preceding weeks he has made at least one big mistake. We are still learning about what transpired during those weeks in which his suffering became unbearable and one wonders if we will ever know the whole truth.It is a fact that he decided, for reasons as yet unclear, to share his concerns about the behaviour of our government with a journalist.
I have no inside information about this case, nor am I concerned here with some of the apparent contradictory testimony of the witnesses. I am a trade unionist in the largest public service trade union in the country and I passionately believe in the principal of free speech and a free press. So my immediate concern is about what goes wrong with the process that exists to allow a public servant to freely and safely express genuinely held concerns about the behaviour of their employer.
In UNISON we are not strangers to the “moral panic” and “blame culture” which ensues following the death of a child in care. In the light of the above I have to ask myself some uncomfortable questions.
What if a social worker in a child protection team came to me with a concern that their employer had behaved in a way, which did not protect a child in care? Say for example they found out that the child was having contact with an inappropriate adult, had passed these concerns on and the Department had failed to act on them.
Would they even think of coming to me? Would they see UNISON as a safe pair of hands?
In my experience when a member in these circumstances makes a tentative approach they are scared. They need to feel that UNISON can highlight their concern without them becoming the subjects of a witch-hunt. Working for the local authority one becomes accustomed to the fact that if there is a problem there will most likely be a policy that deals with it. Wirral’s “Whistle blowing” policy has therefore, until recently, been the policy of choice in this respect. One can whistle blow without fear of retribution because everybody knows that the whistle blowing policy is designed to protect the whistle blower. Don’t they?
In Wirral’s policy there is an impressive list of occasions when you would be expected to blow the whistle.
“Its your responsibility to whistle blow if you have genuine concerns about the mistreatment of people; financial malpractice; miscarriage of justice; abuse in care; dangers to health and safety; risks to the environment; and cover ups.”
The policy goes on to describe how to whistle blow and in a helpful question and answer format it provides re-assurance that it is the right thing to do. It even encourages the employee to seek “independent advice from their trade union” However on the central question of confidentiality one will find the following:
“Every effort will be made not to reveal your identity if you so wish. At the appropriate time, however, you may need to come forward as a witness
Oops! Whatever happened to me as a safe pair of hands?
Wirral is not alone in this respect. I have examined the whistle blowing policies of neighbouring authorities: Liverpool, Sefton, Knowsley, Manchester, Cheshire and Clywd. On the subject of confidential whistle blowing they do not differ.
I believe that there has to be a role for UNISON to be a friend to public service workers who need to disclose their concerns but perhaps we need to find a better way than whistle blowing to do it.
Professor Keith Hawton, a “suicide expert” who gave evidence to the inquiry, explained that Dr Kelly would have experienced “a severe loss of self esteem resulting from his feeling that people had lost trust in him and from his dismay at being exposed to the media.”
If trade unionists can learn a lesson from the pain and suffering clearly caused to Dr Kelly, it is this. That the journalists’ fight to protect their source and to place information in the public interest in the public domain is critical. Despite a protracted and public battle to “protect his source” Andrew Gilligan failed. Against the tremendous pressure brought to bear by the employer, and in this case this means our government, he was not a safe pair of hands.
Above all when dealing with trade unionists in this position we should never, whether through ignorance or vanity, lead them to believe we can protect them when we can’t. The human cost of a betrayal of trust can be too great.
Last modified: Monday, December 8, 2003
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Notices
Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
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Make a note in your diary
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NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
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