Harassment in the Workplace - Legislation, UK

Legislation was introduced in 1997 following a significant number of very high profile cases involving stalkers. The legislation called the Protection of Harassment Act 1997 was intended to simplify the process of prosecuting those involved in the practice of stalking.

It was never envisaged that the legislation would have any impact within the workplace, it was designed to protect victims from nuisance individuals. However, the ambit of the legislation has been widened significantly by a decision of the House of Lords in August 2006.

The facts of the case, Majrowski –v- Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Trust, were that Mr Majrowski contended successfully that he had been bullied and harassed by his manager whilst working for the health trust in London.

Mr Majrowski was unable to claim unfair dismissal because the bullying had not resulted in the termination of his employment. He was unable to establish that the bullying in any way amounted to discrimination on the basis of his sex, race, disability, religion or sexual orientation and was consequently unable to bring a claim for discrimination. Mr Majrowski was further unable to show that he had suffered any kind of physical or psychiatric injury which would have been necessary to support a personal injury claim, he could only establish that he had suffered anxiety and distress. However, despite the apparent weakness of Mr Majrowski’s claim the House of Lords determined that he was entitled to compensation under the 1977 Act for the anxiety and distress he had suffered due to the bullying he had experienced at work.

What is equally concerning is that an employee can bring a claim under this Act, unlike claims for discrimination, for up to six years after the harassment was supposed to have occurred. Mr Majrowski brought his claim more than four years after the harassment he had experienced had ended. To make matters worse the claim is brought in the County Court and as such the employer may be responsible for the employee’s legal costs.

Moreover, the claim can be brought regardless as to the efforts, which may have been taken by the employer to ensure that the workplace was free from harassment. An employer may actively seek to ensure that the workplace is a professional environment in which people behave properly towards one another. However, one maverick employee could result in the employer, through no fault of its own, being exposed to the risk of a claim.

It appears that a one off incident by one employee is unlikely to support a claim, but two or more incidents or one incident involving more than one employee will be sufficient. The incident does not have to take place within work, but must occur within the course of employment which would cover work parties and nights out.

It is too early to tell how actively this legislation may be used by harassed employees. However, it is clear from this case and the ever expanding coverage of discrimination law, in particular to cover age as from 1 October, that all employers have to ensure that they have the necessary training and policies in place to try and ensure that harassment and bullying simply does not occur within the workplace.

By Joe Thornhill, November 29, 2006

How performance appraisals send you GAGA

Many performance appraisal systems are helping to produce dysfunctional organisations, according to a workplace ethics expert. Michele "Micki" Kacmar, a management professor at the University of Alabama, says performance appraisals that just put ticks in boxes result in bad workplaces, bullying and high turnover.

She says most workers are motivated more by respect than money. The trouble is, most performance management systems fail to pick this up.

"You don't quit your job, you quit your supervisor," Professor Kacmar says. "But they don't say that. Instead, they say there was no flexibility, the hours were bad and the commute was too long. What they're really saying, though, is, my boss doesn't respect me, I'm not getting the treatment I deserve.

"People will take a lot of hardship if they believe people respect them. The money is great, but if you go to work every day and hate what you do and hate what's going on around you, the pay cheque will go to the doctor to fix the physical symptoms that the stress in the organisation is causing you."

Professor Kacmar, whose work focuses extensively on the "dark side" of organisations, says performance appraisals need to be conducted more often, at least quarterly, if they are to pick up black spots in an organisation. Part of the problem, she says, is that all organisations are political.

The problem is not with the performance appraisal systems, but the way these are thought through and implemented. An abusive supervisor, for example, would be allowed to continue because no one would speak up and the bullying behaviour would not be deemed relevant by the supervisor's superiors.

"In organisations, you will find fiefdoms where the people you hire and fire will do your bidding. It creates an environment that allows you to be king," she says. "In order for this supervisor to be fired, whoever does their performance appraisal would have to document their behaviour. But the problem is, the person in charge of that person doesn't see the bad behaviour because it's focused outwards, and not upwards."

In her work consulting with companies and government agencies, Professor Kacmar has developed a scale for assessing organisational dysfunction. Her scale has three indicators: behaviour, policies and systems, and the level to which people in the organisation turn a blind eye (a process that she labels Going Along to Get Ahead, or GAGA).

Professor Kacmar says there are very few organisations that would score well on all three indicators. The ones that do score well have strong ethical cultures, motivated workforces and performance management systems that focus on people's success stories, not their shortcomings.

From: http://www.theage.com.au

Academic Unions are hopeless...

This is what the University and College Union (UCU) will do to defend you at a cost of over £130 per year to join:

If you are convinced that you are being unjustly accused, and/or that the complaint is malicious, you should:

• Contact a branch/local association (LA) officer. It may be that an informal discussion between you, the person alleging ill-treatment, and a third party will solve the problem. [Imagine senior managers who manufactured evidence calling an independent external party to investigate...]
  
  
• If this does not occur, and it is clear that formal proceedings will ensue, ask for UCU representation. A branch/LA officer or official may agree to represent you. [You can ask for it, but not everyone gets it. And what of the cases where the union rep supported the bully and refused representation to the victim?]
  
  
• You should gather evidence in your defence, including witnesses. [Does this count as UCU help?]
  
  
• If the outcome of a formal hearing is to find you guilty of bullying or harassment, UCU may continue to represent you through any internal procedures for appeal. However, you should be aware that UCU may not support you further (unless the representatives are convinced that a miscarriage of justice has occurred) beyond advising you of your legal rights. [Simply impressive.]
  

There is not a single case of workplace bullying where the UCU (AUT + NATFHE) went all the way to Employment Tribunal or County Court to defend a member. Not one.

Let us not forget what the National Union of Teachers did to Tim Field.

What’s the major challenge facing your organisation in tackling bullying?

...The role of senior management in leading this change process can’t be over-emphasised. Where senior managers only give lip service to the idea of creating a culture of respect and don’t take the necessary steps to change their own inappropriate behaviours, it won’t happen. Employees quickly become cynical when faced with statements that urge them to behave in ways they don’t see reflected in their managers’ behaviour on a day-to-day basis.

Leadership competencies

A number of leadership competencies are important in building a climate of change. These leadership competencies include:
• relating to people
• personal integrity
• visibility
• commitment to excellence
• willingness to challenge the status quo.

Leaders need to be seen to be championing a culture of respect by having an ongoing conversation with employees about the organisation’s values and by providing formal and informal recognition for people’s achievements. Senior managers also need to develop and communicate the importance of engaging in teamworking, mutual respect and dignity and valuing the individual at work...

From: Bullying at work: beyond policies to a culture of respect, CIPD

DIT settles bullying case among senior staff, all allegations withdrawn - Ireland

The Irish Times, 21 May 2007

A long-running bullying case between two senior members of staff at Dublin Institute of Technology's business faculty has been resolved. This has led to the withdrawal of all allegations made against the director of the business faculty, Paul O'Sullivan, by his junior colleague, Dr James Urquhart.

Under the terms of an agreement with the college, Dr Urquhart is believed to have received a severance package worth more than €250,000. In return he has agreed to leave his post as head of DIT's graduate business school. However, it is understood that while he has vacated his post with immediate effect, he remains on the college payroll.

The case, which first commenced in January 2004, revolved around allegations of bullying and harassment levelled by Dr Urquhart against Mr O'Sullivan and which have now been withdrawn fully. An independent investigation by a rights commissioner examined 31 complaints and upheld six of the allegations in December 2005, one of which was subsequently overturned by DIT. The majority of the other complaints were not upheld by this investigation, which included interviews with a range of witnesses and DIT president Prof Brian Norton. The investigation found that Dr Urquhart had sustained a case of bullying against Mr O'Sullivan.

The findings of this report have now been set aside and all allegations withdrawn by Dr Urquhart. Mr O'Sullivan is understood to have sought to clear his name through an appeal of the findings of the report, and is believed to have been confident that this would transpire during any appeals process.

However, Dr Urquhart through his union, the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI), was also unhappy with DIT's interpretation of the report's findings and launched an appeal. The matter came to a head last month when the former chairman of the Labour Court, Finbarr Flood, who was appointed to handle the appeals process, succeeded in securing an agreement. Mr O'Sullivan incurred significant legal costs as a result of the long-running case. However, it remains unclear what percentage, if any, of the legal costs incurred by Mr O'Sullivan and the TUI have been met by DIT under the terms of the agreement.

The amount to be paid to Dr Urquhart is thought to include the equivalent of 18 months' salary, plus additional pension benefits and other monies. The agreement includes a commitment not to pursue any further disciplinary or other action in relation to the matter. It also includes a clause containing a commitment that no officer of DIT would be pursued legally or any further allegations about the matter made against them. Mr O'Sullivan and Dr Urquhart have agreed to a confidentiality clause and refused to comment. When contacted by The Irish Times a spokeswoman for DIT refused to comment.

Not only in America...

The story below repeats itself in many different versions and combinations in this country too (and perhaps many others). There are many (ex) academics who have suffered and continue to do so in a very similar manner to the story described below. Sadly, these things do no happen only in America...
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After a very successful career at a major U.S. private university, I accepted some time ago an offer from another major private university to become chair of a department that had been in trouble for years, with the mandate to bring its house in order and improve its stature both within and outside the university. With the help of a supportive dean, I was successful beyond anyone’s expectations, bringing the department to national attention and recruiting a sizable number of good graduate students in competition with the some of the best schools in my discipline. There was a widespread perception that I was one of the best department chairs in the university —one administrator described what I had done for the department and the university as a “miracle.” It wasn’t easy, since faculty in my department were often at odds with one another, and one female faculty member was antagonistic to me from the outset, trying to undermine my role behind my back by spreading false stories among the faculty. She had limited success, since, apart from one important supporter, she alienated most of the other members of the department with insults and false accusations.

Some of those who have described their mobbing experiences have characterized themselves as “outspoken,” a trait which is supposed to be protected by academic freedom, but which can unfortunately lead to the active hostility of colleagues. I was just the opposite, supporting and encouraging all faculty and staff, including my antagonist and those who were less competent or productive among the faculty, in both their professional lives and their inevitable personal difficulties. My administrative credo was based on integrity, fairness, openness, and positive support for everyone.

At one point, however, I was forced to remove one of the less competent faculty from a minor administrative role she had abused for years, not only for poor administration and repeatedly upsetting other faculty and students, but because I couldn’t believe anything she said to me. At approximately the same time, I also had to let go a part-time adjunct who, in four years, had proved herself manifestly incompetent in a vital area of the department’s activities. The latter individual was a close friend of the former, and both of them had friends in the department.

In a matter of months, this group had organized its first mobbing effort against me, and joining forces with the original antagonist and her supporter, voted that my appointment as chair not be renewed. The dean was taken aback, interviewed most of the faculty individually, and declared himself “sickened,” by their conduct. Nevertheless, he believed I had lost too much support to continue as chair, insisted on my resignation, and admitted in the process that the same group of faculty, if they got their way in this matter, would probably cause further trouble in the future. I am reminded of a story circulated at my previous university about its president admonishing a faculty member about to take a dean’s position at another institution, “Never fire anybody. No matter how bad he or she may be, everyone has friends, and those friends will be after your blood.”

That president’s attitude had seemed to me an inappropriate way to run a university (there were some rather poor officers in his administration), but both his words and those of my own dean proved prophetic, for not only did I lose my chairmanship, but for the next couple of years I was subjected to a series of public slanders from the mob that had ousted me and their male supporter, to the point of where I complained in writing to one of them—my long-term antagonist. What happened afterward was a wholly unexpected shock. A few months later I received a letter from what was by that time a new, interim dean (who was being vetted as the permanent dean), saying that a group of women in my department had accused me of sexual harassment and other offenses, a committee had been appointed to oversee an investigation, and an outside attorney had been hired to do the investigating and report to the committee and the dean. The process was very secretive, in violation of every aspect and safeguard of the university’s own policy (which had never been published and was kept hidden from me and my attorney) as well as in violation of every safeguard for handling such matters published and recommended by the U.S. Department of Education. Nevertheless, the investigator made it clear through numerous comments to me and to several other witnesses, that she not only found no fault with me, but also found my accusers so outrageous that at one point she blurted out, “How can you work with such people?” She also declared that she planned to recommend that the university hire a psychiatrist to assist the department. Her judgment concurred in detail with the more general assessment of the university’s highest personnel officer (also a woman), who declared the ringleaders “crazy and hysterical.”

The report of the investigator was not what the dean wanted, since he couldn’t afford a group of women complaining that he was insensitive to their grievances while he was still under consideration as the permanent dean. He has therefore kept the report under wraps ever since and refused under any circumstances to release it. Meanwhile, from friendly departmental witnesses I learned that the mobbers had been meeting secretly for several months, intimidating and threatening students and staff, and acting in general like a typical lynch mob obsessed with groupthink. I also learned that the investigator had uncovered numerous instances of outright fabrication on the part of the mobbers, in addition to false statements, radical distortion, and pettiness in all their other allegations. Nevertheless, the two faculty committees eventually involved in the investigation were easily misled by the dean and the university’s legal office, documents were withheld from them by university officials, they did not interview witnesses themselves, nor was I given adequate opportunity to respond to either committee. At the end of the investigation, the dean tried to get me to resign my tenure in return for a couple of years’ salary and the threat of dire consequences if I didn’t. I refused, since senior positions in my field are scarce as hen’s teeth and my discipline isn’t marketable outside the academy.

Without my ever seeing the written complaint the mobbers had submitted and without a hearing, the dean then banned me from my department, my salary and benefits were cut, and I was suspended from teaching for a period of time. I do not fault the faculty committees for ill-will, or even overweening arrogance, but for naiveté in being unprepared to believe that there wasn’t anything to the hundreds of accusations the mobbers had thrown at me (their meetings had generated some truly wild stories and hysteria), and for incompetence in running a complete and fair investigation. Sometimes where there is smoke there is no fire, but only purveyors of smoke.

In reaction to what had been done to me, I attempted, at great expense, to sue the university, but without success—my suit was dismissed on a technicality. Private universities can get away with vastly more misconduct than the courts allow public universities. However, I did obtain detailed information about the dishonesty that attended this matter from beginning to end, not only on the part of the complainants, but on the part of the dean and the university’s legal office. The information, to me, was worth the price of the lawsuit. The subsequent decade has been difficult, in part because of the detailed information about injustice that I uncovered and have been unable to use to any effect. Even though I have interviewed elsewhere as a finalist for several administrative positions, the necessary disclosure of my difficulties with my present university terminated each of those possibilities. Openings for senior professors in my field have been rare, and although I’ve been a finalist for both positions I’ve applied for, in each case I lost out to younger candidates. In recent years, in response to my formal complaint about the dean to the Board of Trustees, my annual salary increases have been reduced to a pittance in relation to everyone else’s. So much for academic freeedom.

My professional life at my university is now filled with ironies. My teaching has been restricted to an introductory course for non majors that others in my field don’t want to teach, nor am I allowed to do any interdisciplinary teaching or teaching in other departments, even though in the past I had taught highly successful interdisciplinary courses and courses in two departments other than my own. Fortunately, the students who register for my present course are mostly quite good, and I receive some of the best student evaluations in the university despite the deadening effect of teaching the same thing year in and year out. But I have no opportunity to work with majors in my field, and I am deprived of being part of the life of the university, which I always enjoyed. On the other hand, since I am not included in or asked to do anything other than teach my course, I have far more time for my own research and publications than ever before.

Outside the university I have an international reputation for my scholarship, integrity and personality, and I am treated with great friendship and respect by colleagues elsewhere. I am frequently invited to international conferences and asked to speak and give workshops on endowed series at other institutions. I’ve served on doctoral committees at other universities and on review committees for departments in my field, including the Ivy league. I’m constantly asked by younger colleagues for fellowship recommendations, and by department chairs for tenure and promotion evaluations, including some from the most prestigious departments and universities in the country. I am regularly asked to do peer reviews for the most important journals in my field.

No one either inside or outside the university who knows me believes any of the allegations of the mobbers, and the effect of my being disciplined and rusticated has been to bring disapprobation from colleagues all across the country on my university, my former department and the colleagues who mobbed me. In the past decade the department has been mostly ruled by the mobbers and their supporters, and each in a series of chairs has ruined a specific aspect of the department. The once thriving graduate programs have either disappeared or are hanging on by a thread; no longer are there applicants from important undergraduate departments in our field. Recruiting of new faculty has also been problematic because of the widespread negative reputation of the department. These chairs have further fouled their own nest by retaliation against faculty and staff who supported me or who even insisted on remaining neutral. Firings of faculty and staff over the past decade have been legion, including non-tenured faculty who were outstanding in their subject areas. Even the university administration is fed up with a department that is the source of constant problems. Nevertheless, the dean not only overlooks this kind of behavior, the university has refused to investigate numerous thoroughly documented grievances of serious retaliation, despite piously advertising each year that it does not permit retaliation of any sort. Many current faculty stay away from the department, only showing up for their classes and avoiding as much contact with its ruling clique as possible.

All this has happened in the decade in which I have been gone from the department and had no influence over it whatsoever, so I clearly was not the problem. Almost all faculty and all of the staff are afraid of the current chair, who was the leader of the mobbers (this appointment alone illustrates the irresponsibility and cynicism of the dean). The department is now in almost as bad shape as it was before I arrived. Recently the university has instituted a code of conduct, emphasizing professional integrity, which all faculty are required to sign, but whose standards none of the department chairs who followed me, nor the dean himself, who is widely criticized throughout the university for dishonesty, could ever meet. But of course, they will never be held to account.

How have I coped with all this over the past decade? It hasn’t been easy. On the one hand I have very few duties and still receive a full-time salary and benefits, even if somewhat reduced, and can continue to do so as long as I wish. This is comforting financial security. As an academic cousin of mine put it, “You’re in academic Heaven—you just had to go through academic Hell to get there.” When I talk to colleagues at other universities about my situation, they sometimes jokingly ask, “How can I get such a deal?” But I hardly view it as heavenly. In my innermost being I’m a teacher—at my previous university I won all the major teaching awards—and it’s very frustrating not to be able to expand my teaching into new and interesting areas or to be able to engage majors and graduate students in my field. It’s difficult not to be able to share in the life of the institution through committees and interactions with colleagues—something which I always found interesting and rewarding, even if sometimes overly time consuming. I had for decades been an active and forceful supporter of women’s role and rights in the academy, but I now find myself uncomfortably suspicious of women in a way I never was. I now wonder what someone to whom I’ve been pleasant, supportive, and helpful might be plotting behind my back.

Perhaps most difficult of all, however, has been the shattering of my belief in the societal role of universities as committed to truth and as bastions of justice and ethical conduct. I’ve seen plenty of bad behavior by both individual faculty and administrators over my long career at four different private institutions, but I had never before encountered or even heard of a systematic, sustained Orwellian environment, not only within a department, but at the central core of a university. The very foundation of why I became an academic in the first place has been dislodged, and I find myself in that otherworld of big brother who officially declares that black is white and who defines reality, not according to facts and objective judgment, but according to what is expedient for the pursuit of authoritarian power and control. I feel like an alien in my own country, a refugee with no place to flee. I’m sure that most other “mobbees” are in far worse circumstances, though probably are not any more angry, than I.

Name and institution withheld at writer’s request for fear of further retaliation.

Due credit...

Anonymous said...

While this blog is becoming the platform to name and shame many bullying and corrupted managers, I wish to give credit to Prof. Peter Grant from Edinburgh University who displayed the highest levels of integrity when dealing with a complaint against someone quite senior to myself.

Dignity at Work, HEIs - UK

In large, complex organisations such as HEIs, conflict between staff, students and visitors will inevitably occur from time to time. The key is for organisations to recognise this and to take steps to deal with issues that arise in an appropriate and timely manner. This research has identified a number of important criteria for tackling bullying and harassment in the workplace effectively.

• Senior management support is vital – those institutions that promote dignity at work most effectively have a proactive and committed senior management team.

• The business case for tackling bullying and harassment must be articulated effectively and understood within the institution. Institutions need to be more effective at identifying the costs and benefits, both of introducing dignity-at-work initiatives and of failing to do so. A ‘virtuous circle’ of continuous improvement in relation to dignity at work should be developed and promoted.

• Dignity at work must be established as a core value of the organisation and thus become a basic right for all. It should form part of the institution’s strategic objectives, and should become embedded in all its strategic developments.

• Organisational factors can create problems in relation to dignity at work; bullying and harassment do not always occur because of personal differences between individuals.

• Working in partnership with trades unions to develop a culture in which bullying and harassment are treated seriously and tackled effectively can be beneficial.

• Dignity-work policies should be comprehensive, but easily understood and accessed by all staff within the organisation.

• Institutions should emphasise the importance of early intervention and the use of informal dispute-resolution procedures to minimise damage for all concerned, and should explore less adversarial routes of conflict resolution such as mediation.

• Services such as harassment networks and mediation should be supported by effective communication and rigorous training.

• Institutions need to develop good monitoring and evaluation systems for such services. Provision should be regularly reviewed to ensure it continues to be appropriate.

• Institutions should make every effort to provide a range of support services for staff, to ensure they meet the needs of people from a range of backgrounds and with different needs.

• Managers should be well trained, and encouraged to seek support if they are encountering difficulties with staff management issues. A blame culture, and one that encourages reward by results, by whatever means, will be detrimental to the institution’s efforts in tackling bullying and harassment.

• Finally, institutions should be encouraged to work towards becoming a model workplace in which all staff are treated fairly, and dignity at work is effectively and continually promoted.
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From: Dignity at Work, Final project Report, Equality Challenge Unit, April 2007

Open Letter to Mr Robert Moreton - The 'correct' procedures

Dear Professor Roberton Moreton,
Dean of the School of Computing and Information Technology, Wolverhampton University

In the Times Higher Education Supplement of 18 May 2007, we read the following: '...Robert Moreton... said in a statement: "Following a series of incidents, I can confirm that a member of staff in the School of Computing and IT has been dismissed on the grounds of gross misconduct." He said that all allegations by the staff member had been "fully dealt with" under correct procedures, adding that staff welfare is a priority for the university.'

Professor Moreton we have some questions about the above statement.

Firstly, if the member of staff who was dismissed on the grounds of 'gross misconduct' did not approve of you sharing this with the media, then this could potentially constitute a breach of confidential information and could be reported to the Information Commissioner. Did you have the approval of the staff member to share his dismissal with the above publication?

Secondly, you state that 'correct procedures' were followed in reaching the decision to dismiss the staff member.

When a staff member raises in writing concerns about lack of support and allegations of workplace bullying, are you aware that this should be dealt with as a formal grievance? What efforts for mediation did the university attempt?

Did you follow the three-step discipline and dismissal procedure (as described by ACAS) before you reached the decision to dismiss the staff member? Did you follow your own internal procedures? Did you seek independent external advice, for example from the Andrea Adams Trust?

Was the staff member allowed to read transcripts of witness statements, and was he invited to present witnesses? What representation did he have and was this adequate? How have issues of confidentiality been dealt with? What training did the investigators have?

Unless there are answers to the above questions, any claim that correct procedures were followed, and that staff welfare is a priority for the university are unsubstantiated.

Lastly, we wish to quote the following from ACAS: '...Most people have very clear ideas about what they think is fair. These are partly a reflection of personal values. However, in society we also have shared values – and many of these are associated with the idea of 'natural justice'.

Natural justice refers to certain fundamental principles of justice that many of us deem to be fair. Conflict often occurs when we neglect our duty:

• to give someone a fair hearing
• to explain the reasoning behind a decision
• to be impartial
• to hear an appeal against a decision.

Your organisation's procedures and policies must include key aspects of natural justice.'

Yours sincerely,

Louise Michel

Staff see red over online policing

Staff face dismissal for criticising their employers in chatrooms and blogs, report Phil Baty and Tony Tysome. [Times Higher Education, 18 May 2007]

Academics' internet activity is increasingly being "spied on" by managers, it was claimed this week after a lecturer at Wolverhampton University was sacked for making a series of allegations online.

Union leaders and academic freedom campaigners argued this week that lecturers and researchers must be free to criticise their managers and to discuss their jobs without fear of reprisal. But university marketing chiefs warned that online activities such as blogs and web forums are increasingly being monitored by universities keen to protect their reputation.

The debate was sparked by the case of Sal Fiore, a senior lecturer in computing at Wolverhampton. An investigation by The Times Higher has established that he was sacked on grounds of gross misconduct last month following a series of e-mails.

Evidence against him included a posting he had made to a discussion forum in which he named Wolverhampton in association with general bullying allegations. Dr Fiore had also contributed to a blog for bullied academics - bulliedacademics.blogspot.com - where academics this week complained that they were under surveillance. One said that managers use postings "to 'get' their targets on some violation of university policy". Another said that bosses were "snooping around, looking for 'evidence".

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, said: "Academics should not be made to feel that any comment they make may be picked up by some sort of university spy team and used against them." [Thank you Sally - such a radical statement!]

Peter Reader, director of marketing and communications at Bath University, said that there was "huge interest" in such websites and that universities were beginning to monitor them.

Wolverhampton confirmed that Dr Fiore's dismissal related to a number of incidents. Geoff Hurd, deputy vice-chancellor, said: "No member of staff has been, or ever will be, dismissed for exercising their right to freedom of speech."
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Dear Geoff Hurd, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Wolverhampton University,

Of course it is impossible to prove that "No member of staff has been, or ever will be, dismissed for exercising their right to freedom of speech." It is normal routine to 'manufacture' new 'evidence' against the staff member to be eliminated from his/her position.

Regarding allegations of 'spying' we have evidence that on May 18, 2007, at 9.12am somebody from your university - and yes, it could be anyone - visited this blog and then followed the link to the online forum to read 'Pack of Wolves, Part 2'. Now who would have an interest in this story, and if it is not you, is it somebody you know?

How likely is it that a staff member - in full knowledge that online communications are monitored in HEIs - would use their work PC to try to join the online forum? Slim chance.

Mr Hurd you are welcome to visit this blog and the online forum - there is much that we can learn from each other...