Union fails to confirm, deny or even acknowledge scathing #MeTU accusations from abuse victim

The GMB trade union has failed to respond to an urgent press enquiry from Skwawkbox about the serious accusations made against it by a woman employee of sexual harassment and rape by one of its senior officials – and of threats made by GMB boss Gary Smith if she did not withdraw the complaint and sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA).

While most of the victim’s allegations of what Smith said are related verbally, on one occasion she recorded Smith appearing to acknowledge that she had been abused, but warning her that if she ‘put a gun on the table’ she would be fired back at and that as a ‘big organisation’ ‘we’ would always have more money and better lawyers for a legal battle – and that there’d be no room for tears if things went badly, so ‘don’t get into that game’:

A secret recording of what appears to be GMB boss Gary Smith

The complainant also says that Smith:

• told a friend to tell her that if she didn’t sign an NDA by the end of the day he’d ‘open a process on her’
• told her that the secret services were watching her
• told her the union was busy fighting the Tories and that she put the ‘whole trade union movement’ at risk if she pursued her complaint
• made her attend meetings, away from the union’s office, in the basement of a local hotel with no HR people present
• told her that GMB is ‘under no obligation to investigate any complaint of sexual harassment simply because it is the employer of the alleged perpetrator or because the GMB’s equipment had been used’
• told her she had ‘driven a wrecking ball’ through the union by launching an employment tribunal case and that ‘all the women on the senior management team wanted me sacked’
• refused to investigate complaints
• refused to help assure her safety at the union’s conference

and more.

In 2020, two years before the victim’s case, barrister Karon Monaghan’s investigation found that:

Bullying, misogyny, cronyism and sexual harassment are endemic within the GMB.

The culture in the GMB is one of heavy drinking and late night socialising,
salacious gossip and a lack of professionalism…

Sexual harassment is common in the GMB.

The union promised to implement Monaghan’s recommendations in full.

Skwawkbox wrote to the GMB, with the link of the alleged victim’s video and a request for urgent comment by 5pm this evening. At the time of writing, more than six hours later, Skwawkbox has still received no response.

At about the same time as the allegations in GMB were unfolding, the TSSA union was rocked by a massive sexual harassment scandal that led to the removal of its general secretary Manuel Cortes and a number of his senior team. The TSSA was accused in January and last month of failing to implement the recommendations of the Kennedy report and its new general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust – pushed by the TSSA executive despite having no relevant union experience – of presiding over a culture of fear, intimidation and bullying.

Watch the victim’s full statement about her alleged experiences here.

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