‘She doesn’t understand how unions work’ – general secretary of union reeling from abuse scandals sends bulk email to branches attacking staff striking over bullying, and the union representing them
Crisis-hit TSSA rail union general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust and her team have followed up their attacks on the GMB union representing TSSA staff in their dispute with the union’s management over bullying and abuse – by emailing all TSSA member branches with an astonishing attack branding the union’s workers as greedy and lazy, and treating the GMB union as if it, and not the unhappiness of TSSA staff, is the driver of the impending strike action for which more than 93% of staff voted last week.
Ms Eslamdoust was recommended to members, despite what appears to be a complete lack of relevant experience, by the TSSA executive after former general secretary Manuel Cortes was sacked over sexual harassment and bullying exposed in the Kennedy Report, and was supposedly going to clean up the union after the scandal. However, the union has been rocked by fresh allegations of abuse and deep resentment against the new general secretary for the treatment of staff, particularly women.
She recently wrote a bizarre article for the Guardian in which she accused the GMB union of attempting to bully her so it could take over the TSSA and distract from its own renewed sexual harassment scandal, and tried to blame others for her failure to take meaningful action to implement the Kennedy Report’s recommendations, outraging staff members who have pointed out that their dispute pre-dates the new GMB revelations, prompting TSSA staff to pass a unanimous vote of no confidence in Eslamdoust and the union’s president, Melissa Heywood.
Now the pair, along with assistant general secretary Brian Brock, have sent this bizarre message to all the union’s members, via their branches:
Message from TSSA General Secretary
To: Branches
Dear colleagues,
Some of you will have heard that GMB intends to take industrial action against TSSA.
GMB’s dispute with TSSA
TSSA regrets GMB’s decision and wants to resolve the dispute. Thus far GMB have made it impossible to resolve any genuine issues that TSSA staff may have by refusing to set out any specific details of the matters they say are in dispute.
GMB have also refused or ignored every proposal we have made for talks. TSSA have proposed direct talks to resolve the dispute with GMB’s General Secretary, GMB’s Regional Secretary, GMB’s Regional Officials, and GMB’s lay reps among our own staff – all of which proposals have been refused or ignored. TSSA has therefore asked ACAS to facilitate talks, but again GMB have not yet responded to ACAS’ approach for talks.
Nevertheless, TSSA is a good employer, and we will continue to seek resolution with GMB in good faith, just as we have done in all our relations.
There are limits to how far we will go to satisfy demands made to us, and red lines that simply cannot be crossed.
We are seeking to reform and improve TSSA in the wake of failings in our past culture that were identified in the Kennedy and Conley reports.
An example of this is that TSSA proposed to the GMB representatives among our own staff that we would have independent observers in staff recruitment processes, so that everyone could have confidence in the fairness of those processes. Instead of accepting this measure, GMB demanded that there must be 2 GMB appointees involved in every TSSA recruitment process. We will not allow the process of cultural change to be misused to hand control of our staff recruitment to another organisation, removing the control of TSSA’s own democratically elected Executive Committee (EC) and General Secretary. We are completely clear that we will not allow our union to be bullied by anyone.
Many TSSA staff had 3 separate pay rises over the course of 2023, while many of our own members suffered from years of pay freezes. Instead of recognising that TSSA staff are being well paid, GMB have instead demanded that we must reduce staff working hours by more than 10% and increase pay significantly above inflation. Despite our desire to settle disputes with our staff, we will not allow members’ money to be misused for pay awards far in excess of anything that our members could ever expect.
Emphases added by Skwawkbox
Furious TSSA members have told Skwawkbox that Eslamdoust’s proposal to meet GMB general secretary Gary Smith to resolve the dispute shows a fundamental lack of understanding of how unions work and that the attack on workers as greedy and demanding mirrors the tactic of the bad employers that TSSA and other unions are supposed to fight, not copy.
A ‘frequently asked questions’ document issued by the striking workers and their union reps addresses Eslamdoust’s claims:
The General Secretary has claimed that the GMB union are using an in-house agreement to block staff recruitment. Is this true?
GMB members are not seeking to block the appointment of new staff. All we want is for our existing transparent procedures to be upheld, which is not happening. We would welcome recruitment to fill the 9 existing Organising vacancies, which could do much to increase our ability to recruit and organise in the workforce.
When the General Secretary emailed GMB Reps on 16 November 2023 to state that the TSSA Executive Committee had approved recruitment of three new vacancies (Campaigns and Media Role, Stakeholder and Engagement Role, Legal and Governance Role) on an interim basis of six months, we asked for job descriptions so that we could consult over the grading and pay for the roles. This is the same as we would do for any new job role and is in line with our established collective bargaining procedures. Further, it ensures that there is no potential for discrimination.
Five months later the General Secretary has yet to provide us with job descriptions. Had she come to us with the job descriptions at any point in the last five months we would have been happy to consult so that the roles could move forward to advertising. What we couldn’t do is sign off on roles without any information on their grading, pay or duties, or how these new roles fit in within a Staffing and Operational plan (which we have also never seen).
Existing roles do not need negotiation over grading and pay, so over the last six months the General Secretary could have recruited to fill a number of roles, including 9 Organiser vacancies, and roles in the Membership services, and Comms teams. She has not done so.
She has, however, advertised for a part time Political Officer, and appointed an interim HR Manager role (twice in three months, without following any agreed recruitment procedures). She has also appointed a part-time, temporary Assistant General Secretary, (changed from a full time to part time post without explanation) advertising that post in the week before the Christmas shut down with just a two-day window for staff to apply while half the staff were already on leave. Just this week TSSA has advertised for a new Assistant General Secretary.
It is simply not true to say that the GMB is blocking recruitment. We are just insisting that the creation of entirely new roles follows our existing transparent processes.
How about the General Secretary’s claims that the dispute has been fabricated as part of a takeover plot by the GMB, or to distract from other problems within the GMB?
These false allegations seem designed purely to distract from the very real problems at the heart of this dispute.
Our dispute existed last autumn, well before the latest allegations about the GMB came to light. Our General Secretary is well aware of this. We are disappointed that she has chosen to misrepresent our dispute and make false allegations to the Guardian rather than meet us at ACAS.
The accusations of bullying are well-founded, detailed, and were being investigated by the whistleblower service, Howlett Brown, until the EC and GS terminated their service without a replacement lined up. The President has been aware of the bullying allegations against Ms Eslamdoust, for months, but chose not to follow TSSA’s procedures for managing bullying grievances.
The GMB withdrew from merger talks with TSSA in April 2023 and has no desire to change the status of our current relationship.
The idea that the GMB is making staff manufacture a dispute in order to force a merger is insulting to our members who are experienced trade unionists and more than able to make their own decisions.
Why haven’t you met with the EC to discuss your concerns directly?
We have not received any invitation from the EC. We are open to meeting with them and would welcome the opportunity to explain our issues to them. If the EC requested a meeting with the GMB that has not been conveyed to us by the GS or AGS, this is a worrying reminder of the previous Cortes regime when the EC and staff were kept apart from each other.
Three GMB Reps sit on the Change Management Oversight Group, with two EC members and the GS. As part of this group, we have repeatedly expressed concerns that culture change had stalled in the last 6 months and has now in fact regressed.
In addition, since the publication of the Kennedy and Conley reports in February 2023 (14 months ago), the EC have never met with the whole staff once.
We have, however, met with delegates from the EC, including the President and Treasurer, in meetings trying to resolve this issue on several occasions. In addition, the president has been copied in on all the correspondence about issues we have sent to the GS since last December.
The General Secretary says that nothing has been raised through the agreed internal processes? Why not?
The GMB reps have raised collective concerns through the established bargaining machinery at meetings in November, January, and twice in March, and also in correspondence, since November 2023, to no avail.
Individuals have also raised concerns through the internal and external whistleblowing services. Two staff are currently off work sick with work-related stress, which is itself an indicator of problems in the workplace.
Claims that there is no bullying or harassment
The General Secretary is aware of complaints about bullying, and a culture of fear, within the TSSA. They have been raised repeatedly in formal negotiation meetings between November and March.
In addition, one member of staff submitted a complaint under TSSA’s bullying policy against the General Secretary to the independent investigator Howlett Brown in December last year. This was after a vindictive and targeted bullying campaign against this member for a period of months.
At the beginning of this year the contract with Howlett Brown was terminated without any consultation with the GMB reps or any consideration of the consequences to staff with active complaints and queries.
This decision has caused our member additional distress and anxiety seriously affecting their health and wellbeing without any clarity or certainty regarding the status of their complaint, who will be investigating it and when. During this time the General Secretary has gone out of her way to damage the professional reputation of the member, repeatedly criticising and denigrating them.
To date no alternative independent provider has been appointed which is in direct contravention of the Kennedy report.
Bullying of a trade union rep
One of our Trade union representatives has been subject to hostile behaviour and bullying by the General Secretary, since last November. This has included sending an intimidatory email to the rep, circulating that email to every member of the staff body, and repeatedly lying about him and denigrating him to other staff, in what appears to be an attempt to destroy his reputation.
Emphases added
Approached for comment yesterday, the TSSA doubled down on its blaming of the GMB, compounding the impression of a lack of understanding or recognition that the issues are with the unhappiness of people working for the union and not with the management of the union they are instructing to coordinate the strike on their behalf. A spokesperson told Skwawkbox:
We would encourage GMB to start talking with TSSA to focus on resolving the workplace issues they say they have. It is genuinely extraordinary that GMB are so blatantly seeking to interfere in (and misrepresent) the internal administration of a sister union. TSSA EC took the decision that the last tranche of HS2 compensation would be reserved for strategic objectives to grow and strengthen our union. That is what is happening.
Invited to amend its statement in light of how Skwawkbox would be forced to report it, the union declined.
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