IAN PARKER RESIGNATION STATEMENT
I have resigned from Manchester Metropolitan University.
My position there now is untenable. I was suspended for questioning workload arrangements and appointment procedures. The university then issued misleading statements to the press implying that there were other reasons for the charge of ‘gross professional misconduct’. This attack by the university on my rights as an academic, on my scholarly work and on my trade union activities has had lasting effects, and every attempt to try and repair the damage done has been blocked by them. written evidence presented to my disciplinary hearing by one of my managers included the unwillingly telling sentence: ‘I deeply regret the situation and the inexorable damage incurred by my Department and the University’. I must say I agree! The basis of the campaign to support me was that issues of secrecy and control were at the heart of the activities that led to my suspension, and that the documents should be released to make clear what the charges were and so clear my name. An archive of material about the case was accumulating throughout the campaign at www.asylumonline.net.
Key documents
There has been a sustained attempt to silence me, and suppression of the documents has (as the university well knows) worked against me. This is why I am now making these documents available so readers can make up their own mind as to whether I was absolutely right every step of the way, whether what I did was silly and rude or whether I committed heinous crimes that should be punished with an attempt to end my academic career.
On 18 May 2012 during my time as a University and College Union (UCU) campus representative I sent a ‘confidential’ email to some individual colleagues in my department about workload for the next academic year [www.parkerian.com/120518.rft]. This email was leaked to the head of department by one of the recipients, and I was called to a meeting, before which I sent an open email on 21 May to the departmental list so that it was clear what I had done [www.parkerian.com/120521.rft]. A warning letter sent by the head of department constitutes what MMU refer to in the second of their two charges as ‘a reasonable management instruction’ [www.parkerian.com/121003.rft].
On 26 Sept 2012 I sent an email to the head of department questioning secretive procedures over a new lecturer appointment [www.parkerian.com/120926a.rft], and following their reply, which did not allay my concerns and invited me to consult Human Resources [www.parkerian.com/120926b.rft], I sent an email to the department, copied to the head of Human Resources (HR) and the Vice-Chancellor [www.parkerian.com/ 120926c.rft]. It is this email that MMU refers to in the second of the two charges as the email ‘intended to undermine the credibility of a Head of Department’.
On 2 Oct (at just before 16.00) a disciplinary letter called me to a meeting at 11.00 on 3 October [www.parkerian.com/121002.rft]. I said I could not attend this meeting because it was too short notice for my union representative to attend with me, and so on 3 Oct I was suspended [www.parkerian.com/121003.rft] with immediate effect. To cut a long story short, the disciplinary hearing on 7 October resulted in a verdict that my first email about the appointments in September was within the remit of my work as a UCU representative,
but the email copied to the whole department (and HR and Vice-Chancellor) was designed to undermine the head of department and thereby also disobeyed the reasonable management instruction not to send such emails. The charge was downgraded from ‘gross professional misconduct’ to ‘professional misconduct’ and the penalty was that I would be issued with a ‘final written warning’ which would mean that I could be dismissed instantly for any further perceived wrongdoing. I was also instructed to write a letter of apology to the head of department (for sending emails that undermined her authority). While I was tempted to be stubborn about this, I realised acer some discussion with friends that there were aspects of the emails I could and should apologise for. So I did write and send that apology [www.parkerian.com/121204.rft]. The way was then clear for me to return to work. I was also clear, however, that I was not returning to a department where I had been bullied and harassed (as I explain below). An appeal date was set for 30 January 2013, but by then it become clear that this appeal, like the hearing, would not be fairly conducted.
I appealed on the grounds that, in the words of the MMU disciplinary procedure, ‘the penalty is disproportionate to the alleged disciplinary breach’ (an email copied to colleagues questioning appointment procedures while I was UCU campus representative does not constitute gross misconduct), ‘the disciplinary procedure was not correctly followed’ (the composition and conduct of the panel was inappropriate, it included HR personnel who had already sent disciplinary letters) and ‘new evidence has emerged’ (of the Vice-Chancellor’s involvement and prejudgement of the outcome of the process, which I will return to below).
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