{"id":156718,"date":"2024-10-18T21:08:08","date_gmt":"2024-10-18T21:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/18\/senior-unite-union-official-loses-unfair-dismissal-claim\/"},"modified":"2024-10-18T21:08:09","modified_gmt":"2024-10-18T21:08:09","slug":"senior-unite-union-official-loses-unfair-dismissal-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/18\/senior-unite-union-official-loses-unfair-dismissal-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Senior Unite union official loses unfair dismissal claim"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Howard Beckett had argued claims against him were \u201cbaseless\u201d<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A senior official at one of the UK\u2019s largest trade unions has lost an unfair dismissal claim amid a police investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money-laundering at the organisation.<\/p>\n

Howard Beckett was assistant general secretary at Unite the Union until his suspension in August 2022, four months after police raided the union\u2019s London headquarters.<\/p>\n

In his tribunal judgement, employment judge Richard Nicolle said police searches had also taken place at Mr Beckett\u2019s \u201cflat in London and home on the Wirral on 6 April 2022\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Beckett argued the claims against him were \u201cbaseless\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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His lawyer has told the BBC he is appealing the Employment Tribunal\u2019s judgement, has launched legal action against the union and its general secretary for breach of privacy, and he noted the judge had been critical of Unite.<\/p>\n

Mr Beckett was initially told his suspension was due to allegations of \u201cmisleading\u201d the union\u2019s ruling executive council in relation to the construction of its vastly over-budget hotel and conference centre in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

The project was originally estimated to cost \u00a37m but more than \u00a3100m was eventually spent. <\/p>\n

An independent valuation later concluded the finished building was worth only \u00a329m.<\/p>\n

General secretary Sharon Graham commissioned an inquiry which, the tribunal said, led to the discovery of \u00a314m which did not feature \u201cin the final accounts and it remaining a mystery as to how and when this figure had been assessed and then presumably paid\u201d to a contractor.<\/p>\n

Mr Beckett was also told he had been suspended due to \u201cconcerns about the probity of awarding contracts for affiliated services\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The complex, which is now complete, houses Unite’s regional headquarters, as well as a 170-bed hotel and 1,000-person conference centre<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n
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A close ally of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, Mr Beckett was off sick for almost 18 months before he resigned from Unite in January 2023.<\/p>\n

His lawyer told the tribunal Mr Beckett had not been not well enough to participate in a disciplinary hearing and the union\u2019s disciplinary charges were \u201cbaseless\u201d.<\/p>\n

The employment judge rejected this, and also found Mr Beckett had not been demoted as he had claimed.<\/p>\n

The judge did, however, say there were \u201csignificant deficiencies\u201d in Unite\u2019s \u201cinvestigation and disciplinary processes\u201d.<\/p>\n

Judge Nicolle wrote: \u201cIt would have been extremely surprising in the Tribunal\u2019s view had [Unite] allowed its Head of Legal to return to active employment in circumstances where there were ongoing police investigations into very serious matters to include bribery, money laundering and offences under proceeds of criminality legislation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ms Graham, who succeeded Len McCluskey as Unite general secretary in 2021, did not give evidence to the tribunal.<\/p>\n

The BBC has contacted Unite the Union for comment.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n


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BBC Howard Beckett had argued claims against him were \u201cbaseless\u201d A senior official at one of the UK\u2019s largest trade unions has lost an unfair dismissal claim amid a police investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money-laundering at the organisation. Howard Beckett was assistant general secretary at Unite the Union until his suspension in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":156719,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/bbcx\/grey-placeholder.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[603],"tags":[7973,26982,7343,2008,10650,6070,6953,57305],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156718"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=156718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":156720,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156718\/revisions\/156720"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/156719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=156718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=156718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=156718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}