Arrogance that brought downfall of union's high flyer
UNION PERKS: Robert Parker's £150,000 home with his Mercedes in the drive, a union van parked outside his house
HEADQUARTERS: the GMB building in Glasgow
BLACK AND WHITE: a financial statement revealing the union money Mr Parker used to fund the purchase of football tickets and his Mercedes
Robert Parker, Scottish boss of the GMB trade union, has quit. Chief Reporter DAVID LEASK looks at some reasons why he had to go
HE was the darling of Scotland's trade union movement.
Tough-talking and fiercely proud of his modest roots, he was feted by the nation's Labour leaders, new and old.
He enjoyed all the trappings of success – the salary, home and car of a top business executive.
But Robert Parker, the youngest-ever Scottish regional secretary of the GMB, was today accused by his own colleagues of breaking the trust put in him by thousands of the UK's worst-paid workers.
He has already been branded a bully and a sex pest by two women in an ongoing saga of employment tribunals.
And now union insiders have damned him as a bully boss who has brought the whole movement into disrepute.
Despite almost £250,000 being found for the best lawyer to defend him at his tribunals, Mr Parker couldn't spare union cash to hire a legal team to fight for 900 axed workers at Daks Simpson's Lanarkshire plant.
Mr Parker, 44, has always denied allegations made against him – whether inside or outside Glasgow's employment tribunal office.
He was "shocked and disgusted" by claims he pestered his personal assistant, Margaret McAvoy, now 37, for sex.
He tried to rubbish a subsequent claim by another employee, Mary Senior, that he victimised her after she agreed to stand up for Mrs McAvoy in an internal inquiry.
But insiders believe the two tribunals, along with others against the GMB nationally in recent years, reveal a dangerous rot at the heart of Britain's second-biggest union.
GMB bosses have now vowed to review policies on bullying and harassment in the workplace.
But an investigation by the Evening Times reveals Mr Parker has more than the bullying claims to worry about.
Financial documents obtained by the Evening Times show Mr Parker used his own union's contingency fund to help finance his lifestyle.
He borrowed £16,100 from the fund, usually used for charity donations and incidental costs, in May 2002 to pay for a used Mercedes bought from a garage in East Kilbride.
The withdrawal – which insiders said Mr Parker regarded as an interest-free loan and one of the perks of his job – was against union rules.
Mr Parker had already received £7500 towards a new car from the union, which had changed its rules to give bosses a cash allowance instead of free company cars.
But he needed the extra cash after trading his trademark union-owned jeep – with the private plate M9 GMB – at the town's Milton Motors.
Senior union sources today confirmed the cash was borrowed in clear breach of rules.
Mr Parker's predecessor, Robert Thomson, said: "It would not be appropriate for a regional secretary to buy a car from the contingency fund, which is there to serve the benefit of the members.
"As far as I am aware there are other financial arrangements made for the purchase of cars by regional secretaries."
Mr Parker, who was named in a 1997 telephone "shameline" of Britain's worst employers, has long been sensitive about claims over how union funds were used.
Mr Parker also enjoys a cheap union mortgage for his £150,000 Cambuslang home.
He has accused Mrs McAvoy, whose father-in-law, Robert Thomson, he replaced as regional secretary, of leaking details of his finances – including credit card bills from hotels and restaurants– to the press.
Yet union officials say Mr Parker cut their expenses. GMB organisers were the only officials of their kind in Scotland not allowed mobile phones.
He tried to win friends by regularly picking up tabs for drinks for union officials. At the union's 2001 conference in Aberdeen he sparked scandal by spending thousands of pounds on hospitality at the city's GMB social club.
Robert Parker has also dined out with top Labour politicians, including now First Minister Jack McConnell.
And union reps who stuck close to Mr Parker could expect to be rewarded with foreign trips and perks.
Last summer he sent one of his closest allies to a conference of banana pickers in Ecuador, South America.
Mr Parker also treated associates to tickets for football matches, including last year's Champions League Final in Glasgow, using union funds.
Even now Mr Parker has spared no expense in defending himself against Mrs McAvoy and Miss Senior.
The Evening Times has learned Mr Parker and the union have forked out £247,000 on legal fees for the two tribunals, after hiring Ian Truscott, the country's leading employment lawyer who charges up to £2000 a day, to handle his case.
That figure does not include spending in the last two-and-a-half weeks.
Yesterday, the GMB caved in and offered Miss Senior a settlement of £50,000, pledged to review its bullying policy and agreed to let Miss Senior have her say in public.
Yet Mr Parker, who weeks ago was told to slash £300,000 from his annual budget, last year could not find any cash to hire lawyers to fight for 900 former workers at the crashed Larkhall clothes factory Daks Simpson
As Mr Parker's highly- paid lawyers defended him against allegations from Mrs McAvoy, it was left to two rank-and-file union officials, neither with any legal experience, to try to win some redundancy money for the Daks Simpson workers, mostly women and some of the lowest paid in Scots manufacturing.
The Daks workers got nothing. A union insider said: "It was the ultimate irony. Robert Parker betrayed the very workers he was meant to be representing.
"A union which prides itself on producing some of the best literature on bullying and sexual harassment could find money to defend its own boss, but not the people who pay their subs."
But it was the evidence to come out of the two tribunals – one of which, Mrs McAvoy's, is due to resume later this year – that was to destroy Robert Parker's career.
Mrs McAvoy is claiming constructive and unfair dismissal, citing Mr Parker and the GMB, after she said she had to quit to escape him.
She said he touched her breast at a Christmas party and told her he wanted sex with her. She also claimed he forced her to touch him between the legs, and threatened to put a bottle in her face.
But his lawyers dismissed Mrs McAvoy's claims as fantasy and said she was "looking for excitement and was ripe for an affair".
Mr Parker accused her of having sex with another union official, Robert McGregor, at a Dundee hotel and of wearing revealing outfits to work.
Mrs McAvoy is now so nervous she can't bear to be in a room alone with a man. She was only able to get through the tribunal with the help of powerful anti-depressants.
Mr Parker was again to point the finger at his accuser in the tribunal brought by Mary Senior.
He claimed Miss Senior, 30, also had an affair with the union's north-east organiser Fraser Adam, jeopardising Mr Adam's relationship with his wife.
Mr Parker later withdrew the claim.
A year after Mrs McAvoy had quit her job in 1999, Mr Parker made suggestive remarks to a female colleague at a national conference, sparking a complaint that was also ultimately to lead to yet another employment tribunal, this time against GMB's boss in the north-west of England.
A GMB source said: "The real scandal about Robert Parker was that he was never suspended and was allowed to go on bullying people for years – even after serious allegations were made.
"The tragedy is we work for a union, but don't have a union to turn to when our bosses victimise us."
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/print/news/5013490.shtml
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