I was sacked in September 2001, for an action I had thought legitimate as a shop-steward, and have been shocked at the lack of support available. I would be interested in any comments or suggestions.

The details are these; I was working for a voluntary social work agency which has about 20 smallish units around the country. In my unit, in West London, the relationship between the management and the staff was at an all time low. Many of the staff, including me, felt under attack, one way and another, from management. Pleas for help to senior management at central office had been turned down.

I was the shop-steward. A shop-member had been told by one of the managers that disciplinary action was to be taken against her for failing to complete a piece of work and refusing to acknowledge her error and apologise. The member said that the manager had originally left only half of the instructions about the work, had added the rest later and blamed the member for failing to do the work. So my member was not prepared to apologise. The manager declared herself hurt and outraged at this suggestion. There had been a number of exchanges about this with both parties becoming heated and upset. There had been a long history of difficulty between this manager and this staff member, a fact that was well known to senior management.

I gave a great deal of thought to the question of how to arrive at any definite proof about what had actually happened. I was also worried about whether action might be taken against my member for things said during the arguments.

The day after all this started I happened to be in the manager’s office while she was not there (for reasons agreed to be entirely legitimate). I noticed that she had left her computer on when she had left the previous evening. As she was not expected in that day I decided to turn her computer off. When I moved the mouse to turn off the computer what was immediately displayed on the screen was a memo from the manager addressed to my member. It was regarding the events of the previous day and confirmed that disciplinary action would be taken, partly because my member had failed to apologise.

I decided that it would be useful to study that memo quite carefully so I printed off two copies, gave one to my member and kept one.

I contacted senior management and asked that they make sure that the disciplinary hearing was not heard by that particular manager. But they would not intervene. Shortly before the hearing my union (the T.& G.) informed me that it could be construed as a form of harassment to be required to apologise under the threat of disciplinary action. The shop sent a note about this to the manager. The manager did not back down and, as was to be expected, found my member guilty of misconduct.

We appealed. I had forgotten that the memo that I had printed off from the manager’s computer had never been sent to my colleague. I included a copy in the bundle of papers I put in to senior management, for the appeal, in order to demonstrate the fact of the harassment. Management asked me how I had come by the memo. I explained exactly what had occurred (if I had not it would have been likely that the suspicion would have fallen upon the member I was trying to defend).

Management said that what I had done was probably gross misconduct. The member I was defending and I were both suspended. Management were being advised by “Peninsula Business Services”.

During the process of investigation and hearings the manager suggested that part of the memo had been written by me. This was the part that said that action was being taken against my member partly because she had not apologised. This accusation was withdrawn by senior management after furious rebuttals from me.

My union didn’t do a great deal. The Regional Organiser said my best course of action would be to apologise in the disciplinary hearing and to assure management that I would never do anything like it again. He said we should not “back management into a corner”. However, since I felt that I and my shop-member had been far more sinned against than sinning I was not willing to apologise. Eventually I was sacked and this was confirmed on appeal. He represented me at the hearings but I never felt that his heart was really in it.

The union did nothing else other than arranging for me to see their solicitors about the possibility of representing me at an Employment Tribunal. The solicitors said my chances of success were very small so advised the union not to waste money on paying for me to be represented.

The shop at my unit was virtually powerless. It was small and most of the members had either left or were on sick leave etc. No-one dared take over as steward. Many said they could no longer see the point of being in a union. The branch was rather scattered and did nothing except that individual members rang me from time to time to enquire how I was.

Several months later I went to the Tribunal and, as predicted, lost. (My Regional Organiser had discussed with my (ex)-employers the question of coming to any sort of accommodation. They had offered £1,000 and a good reference. I didn’t consider that was good enough.)

After being sacked I went to a number of social work agencies to look for immediate temporary work while seeking a permanent position. I was shocked to discover that almost no social work agency, statutory or voluntary, was prepared to take me on. In January 2002 I got agency work with Herts County Council which lasted six months until my section was fully staffed so they no longer needed agency workers. During this period I continued to apply for permanent work and sometimes, I think, was almost appointed. I had some interviews, anyway.

At the end of July 2002 I was offered a permanent job, which I was really keen on, with Barnet. It was offered, as is routine, subject to satisfactory references. They had details about my dismissal prior to short listing me. However, after nine weeks, and having got an additional reference from the agency that had dismissed me, they decided to withdraw the offer saying that my references were not satisfactory. So now I am looking for work again and finding it very difficult to come by.

Fortunately financially things have not been too dire. My partner, Ian Saville, (a socialist magician whose act some of you may have seen) has earned more through additional supply teaching etc. and also I was left some money by an aunt. However, emotionally it has been pretty shocking.

We keep hearing reports about how children are being left at risk due to a severe shortage of social workers; but most authorities will not employ me.

Like many other union activists I have often recruited people into the union by using the analogy of it being easy to break one stick on its own but much more difficult to break a whole bundle. But, when it came to it, I found that I was just one stick on my own. That was quite a shock.

How will effective challenges ever be made to any management policies if people are too afraid to put their heads above the parapet?

How can we have any sort of meaningful union movement if people don’t see membership as conferring any protection?

Some people have argued that it was unreasonable of me to expect the union to do more to protect me because my actions in printing that memo, and letting it be found out, were very silly. To which I would reply that if the ranks of shop-steward are to be filled only by people who don’t make mistakes then where are these people to be found?

I would argue that the unions need to make it an urgent priority to move back into a position where they are able to mount an adequate and effective defence of their members.

UPDATE - My trades council and I are looking to see if there would be enough people in the area who might be interested in forming a self-help support group for unemployed trade-unionists.