Aldwyck seeks BME peers’ help on equality
Landlord found guilty of race discrimination asks for advice and prepares for greater TSA scrutiny
Aldwyck Housing Association will call on two black and minority ethnic housing associations for help, after an employment tribunal found it guilty of race discrimination last week
It will ask Odu Dua and Arhag housing associations for advice after the tribunal found its dismissal of housing officer Errol Curniffe was unfair and an act of race discrimination.
Aldwyck has existing links with the associations, which are both set to manage schemes on its behalf.
An internal memo, seen by Inside Housing, states it wants to work more closely with both associations.
‘We will bring them in so that they can help us develop our approach to equality and diversity,’ it says.
The memo states that Aldwyck expects to be subject to more scrutiny by social housing watchdog the Tenant Services Authority as a result of the judgement.
‘We will have an independent review of our policies and procedures in place and yes we expect we will be more closely monitored by the TSA,’ it states.
Aldwyck’s chair Greg Lomax had spoken to its management team following the judgement, the memo adds. It says Mr Lomax is ‘very concerned and wants action to be taken’.
It adds that Aldwyck is doing good work but admits ‘we do not walk and talk diversity, our training needs to be refined’.
It also pledges to improve its staff appraisal process to make sure one-to-ones are effective rather than a tick-box exercise. ‘We can’t have any exceptions or unfair treatment and no racial discrimination,’ it states.
It adds: ‘If there is a dismissal then all the procedures must be followed through correctly.’
Mr Curniffe is a black British man, who joined Aldwyck in 2001 and had an unblemished record until 2008. But the area he managed was increased to 60 per cent higher than average. He had complained about the size of his workload to management. Mr Curniffe was dismissed in December 2008 after two disciplinary hearings.
A spokesperson for Aldwyck said it had no further comment to make.
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Readers' comments (6)
Jim Paton | 06/11/2009 10:31 pm
Oh dear, they still haven't got it.
It's not up to people from ethnic minorities to help us sort out racist attitudes, women to "help" us over sexism or gay and lesbian people to enlighten us about homophobia and discrimination. Those of us who're any one of white, male or heterosexual (that's three ticks for me) have to grow up, listen to what's being said, and clean our own houses. Nobody else can do it for us.
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kass | 07/11/2009 12:11 pm
"Mr Curniffe is a black British man, who joined Aldwyck in 2001 and had an unblemished record until 2008. But the area he managed was increased to 60 per cent higher than average. He had complained about the size of his workload to management. Mr Curniffe was dismissed in December 2008 after two disciplinary hearings."
so if Mr Cunliffe instead of being a black Brtitish man, was a white male or female Housing Officer having exactly his same working issue of work overload and complained about it, s/he would have been been dismissed, but unable to claim race discrimination, s/he would have lost his/her case...
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Peter | 09/11/2009 9:01 am
Kass,
A white male/female can still claim unfair dismissal (constructive dismissal). Based on the evidence of Mr Cunliffe had provided in mitigation (apart from race), a white person would have also won the case on bullying and harassment.
I am also surprised ( Jim's Point) that Aldywck HA need get outside organisation to sort the problem out. Clearly this is a basic management and HR problem ( bullying, harassment, victimisation, racism and abuse of power) If this cannot be sorted out internally, you then need to look at capability issue of the senior officers who are steering the organisation.
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kass | 09/11/2009 12:50 pm
"Peter | Mon, 9 Nov 2009 09:01 GMT
.... If this cannot be sorted out internally, you then need to look at capability issue of the senior officers who are steering the organisation...."
It seems to me, from what I read, this is the real issue... It is not just about race. In fact making race the problem is a cover up for the entire rot. A poster in a related thread has pointed out the acting Chief Executive is ethnic. It looks to me as this is an attempt to avoid a more thorough look into this organisation, one of image rather of substance. Why, if the board was worried and the acting Cheif Exdecutive non-white, did they not rush into looking into this case, called in Mr Cunliffe in and assured him of their support, given him compensation, proposed measures to avoid repeats and solved it before it ended up as it did? Very, very odd or very very incompetent. The whole board should be dismissed straight away.
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Aldwyck Escapee | 09/11/2009 9:51 pm
Got to agree with Peter on this one.
Aldwyck need to take a long hard look at their organisation, dont employ people of etnic minority backgrounds to help with creating an image or implementation of equality. EMPLOY PEOPLE FOR THEIR KNOWLEDGE, EXPERIENCE AND WHAT THEY CAN BRING TO THE ORGANISATION. If the right calibre of people are employed especially at management level, the rot will soon be be weeded out, and the organisation may start to thrive, or at the very least put this whole matter behind it.
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Simideleoluwa Adedeji | 19/11/2009 3:11 pm
The further you move out of London, the less impact the Race Relations Act has. For those of us who live in Bedfordshire, what happened in Aldywch is not new, it is an occupational hazard we all have to live with, if we make the decision to work in our Locality.
I am sure that Aldywch H.A is in shock at the Tribunal's decision because I do not think that they were aware of the impact of their actions and how that can be interpreted. There is a need for Diversity and Equality Training in that area, including Luton.
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