After claiming it was ‘preposterous’ to suggest there was a plan to oust senior Irish trade unionist returning from cancer, Tom Fitzgerald finally admits under oath that plan he discussed in emails with Graham was the same one he ‘ultimately’ presented without cancer survivor Brendan Ogle
Tom Fitzgerald, a senior Unite officer close to Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has told a tribunal in Dublin that it would have been ‘controversial’ to include the name of Unite’s senior officer for Ireland Brendan Ogle’s in an organisational chart.
Ogle had lodged a grievance that he was being forced out after he returned from treatment for life-threatening cancer and has taken Unite to the Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) tribunal in Dublin for disability discrimination. He is also, separately, suing Unite, Graham and her ally Tony Woodhouse for defamation.
During his testimony yesterday Fitzgerald, a supporter of Graham, had told the tribunal that it was ‘preposterous on a load of levels’ to suggest there was any plan by Unite to oust Ogle, who supported a rival of Ms Graham during the 2021 general secretary election.
Ogle has testified that Fitzgerald told him during a meeting that Graham had told Fitzgerald to draw up a new organisational plan for the union in Ireland and that Ogle’s name was not to be in it. Fitzgerald denied saying this and had claimed that he was not working on the strategic plan at Graham’s behest, but was working on a regional plan or organisational review for his boss Jackie Pollock and the Irish executive.
I never had a conversation with Sharon about strategy, I was contributing to a regional plan.
Tom Fitzgerald
However, during her cross-examination of Fitzgerald, Ogle’s barrister Mary-Paula Guinness BL pointed Fitzgerald to emails between him and Graham in which Graham asked for an update regarding his plan – and that Fitzgerald went on to present a plan to the Irish executive in December 2022 that did not include Ogle. She also pointed out that Pollock had testified that as far as he was concerned, Ogle was returning to his usual job and responsibilities in full.
Fitzgerald, who was promoted to ‘regional coordinating officer’ (RCO) during Ogle’s illness, a grade 10 position like Ogle’s, said that he had presented his plan to the Irish executive and that Ogle’s name was not on the plan because it would have been ‘controversial’ to include it because he was a Grade 10. Guinness responded, “You’re a Grade 10 and you’re in it!”.
Mr Ogle wasn’t even aware of this documentation [the emails between Fitzgerald and Graham] when he gave his testimony that there clearly was a plan being headed up by you and you were going to deliver by the end of the year. That email to Sharon supports the fact that you were reporting directly to Sharon about this…
Brendan Ogle’s barrister Mary-Paula Guinness
Pressed by Guinness on whether the plan he presented in December that year – from which Ogle’s name was missing – was the same document he had been working on for Sharon Graham, Fitzgerald at first claimed that what he was discussing with Graham was a different plan. However, after further pressure from Guinness – who asked if it wasn’t the same Ogle-free plan where was the other one? Was it this document? – he eventually admitted:
It ultimately become [sic] this.
Guinness retorted, ‘Thank you Mr Fitzgerald, that’s what I was trying to get at’. She then told him, concerning his denial that he had told Ogle that Graham had said Ogle wasn’t to be in the new organisational plan,
The proof of the pudding is in the eating… we have been provided with a plan which you said you told him nothing about, which was presented in December 2022, and he’s not on it.
Fitzgerald also referred under cross examination to Ogle taking a demotion to a job more than an hour from Dublin because of his health and that he understood that when he (Fitzgerald) was promoted to RCO Ogle would be returning to the more junior role. However, Pollock’s evidence was emphatic that Ogle was coming back to his old job and that a move to Dundalk would likely have been worse for Ogle’s health, because as well as the extra daily travel, in his opinion the regional officer job was the most stressful and difficult one in the whole union.
Guinness put it to Fitzgerald that when he applied for the RCO position, the interviewing panel preferred another candidate for it until Sharon Graham intervened. Fitzgerald claimed not to be aware of it, but admitted Graham had contacted him personally to inform him of his promotion and congratulate him.
The case continues with closing arguments and submissions 18 June.
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