I made an equal pay claim … and was dismissed

Often university heads of department or line managers can push someone out, merely because they don’t like him or her. The bullying can hide behind the scenes — blocking career moves, mocking contributions, cutting off access to key resources & meetings, or removing important tasks. Victims don’t always see it right away. It creeps in, revealing itself through a steady pattern of mistreatment, malice and ignored complaints.

Grievance processes in universities are often a way in which the bullying by heads of department or line managers can be amplified and manipulated. The victim is bullied again by Human Resources, who ignore university guidelines and processes, and act as an extension of management. A typical example is HR imposing tight deadlines on complainants (usually by email on Friday late afternoon) and then taking many months to respond themselves.

The contribution below, submitted by an ex-employee of a Russell Group university, shows many of these characteristic traits. Our contributor started by making a valid equal pay claim … and ended up jobless.

My department was merged with several other departments. The merger was poorly carried out and the culture suffered as a result. To this day, every staff survey reports lots of bullying, harassment and poor morale.

After the merger, myself and two colleagues formed a rebranded team. We managed the workload equally between ourselves. But I was paid 3 grades lower.

As I was clearly working at a higher grade, I made an equal pay claim.

A botched investigation followed with the investigator (a senior University employee) making factual errors and omissions. I pointed these out but never got a satisfactory response. I pursued the matter following the University’s policy for the next few years, often working to very tight deadlines imposed by them. However, the University would often take months to then respond to me.

A new manager was recruited. He brought in new members to the team. He then slowly took tasks away from me, handing them on to other team members. He excluded me from meetings and discussions that I would have previously taken part in. I was being singled out for special, deleterious treatment.

My GP, observing my declining health, put me on antidepressants. I had never suffered from depression before. My employer was wilfully letting my health decline. The formal grievance process dragged on for another 2 years, despite the process having a supposed 5 week timeframe.

I then received notice that my role was at risk of redundancy. The grounds for this were specious. It was not a redundancy, it was unfair dismissal. During the redundancy process, I should have been offered redeployment within the University. This was not done. I was also assured of priority status if I applied for a role at the University. This was not done,

I was then made redundant. 

I later discovered my line manager had accessed my University Microsoft account. This was a deliberate breach of data protection. Through it, my manager would have had access to confidential emails, including very sensitive medical ones. 

The University hounded my former colleagues with whom I had left my old equipment, access cards and keys. This was despite me having agreed to return them to the department before the end of my contract.

I appealed the redundancy before a panel of University employees. I was unsuccessful in this too, yet another charade.

The redundancy was just the last link in a chain of events in the ongoing unresolved grievance about fair pay. It was an unfair dismissal due to the University discriminating against my disability and my significant trade union activity.

The 21 Group thanks our contributor. We are always happy to publish the testimonies of victims, please use contact@21percent.org