BBC loses patience with tribunal pair
Owen Gibson
Wednesday February 19, 2003
Best bits highlighted in red...
The BBC has sacked two long-serving World Service producers after spending up to £1m over the past five years contesting 17 employment tribunal claims from the pair...... Mr Hawwari, who is of Palestinian descent, and Dr Jiad, who is Iraqi by birth, have between them filed a litany of allegations against their managers in the BBC's Arabic Service.
Dr Jiad even claimed his manager had sent him to Iraq to cover a story in an attempt to get him killed.
A BBC spokesman said the paper in case files on the complaints now stretched for 190 feet and the ongoing legal battle had become a constant drain on management time and resources. Defending allegations from the two producers is estimated to have cost the BBC up to £1m in legal costs alone.
Mr Hawwari, who has been with the BBC since 1987, has lodged 12 separate complaints including accusations of perjury, lying and racism against colleagues, all of which have been turned down by an employment tribunal along with several challenges in the court of appeal. Dr Jiad has launched five separate claims over the past five years, all of which have also gone to external tribunals..... Among Dr Hawwari's claims was an accusation that he had been passed over for promotion - when he had failed to turn up for the interview three times.
He also also launched an equal pay claim against a woman who earned less than him. According to a BBC spokesman, tribunal judges had rejected the claims as "frivolous" and "vexatious" and, unusually in an employment tribunal case, the BBC had been awarded costs on a number of occasions......
"The BBC is also particularly concerned about the impact this situation has had on the health and morale of other staff, as neither Mr Hawwari nor Dr Jiad has been prepared to withdraw the serious allegations that they have made at different times against colleagues or against their managers - even though these have been shown to be unsubstantiated in the courts," said the spokesman.
Over the past two years there have been a string of complaints of racism and bullying from World Service staff, with one employee accusing the corporation of having a "colonial mentality" and another of having a "colonial outlook". In all of these cases, the BBC has either won the tribunal or the case has been settled before a verdict was reached......
Back to office jokes from:
