Stop the victimisation of NUT rep Pat Markey

January 23 Pat Markey, Northampton NUT Secretary, and union rep at Duston School, was today (17 January) found guilty of gross misconduct and summarily dismissed. This follows a disciplinary hearing held at the school on Thursday, lasting several hours, at which the panel was unable to reach a decision.

Allegations against Pat arose from the withdrawal of his one day facility time last summer. The head decided that when the school became an academy it would no longer be bound by the County Council's Facilities Agreement with recognised unions such as the NUT. This was in spite of the fact that the local authority would have continued to fund it at no cost to the school. The NUT and Trades Council wrote to the head asking her to reconsider, but she declined to do so. Consequently, local trade unionists and others staged two peaceful protests outside the school. A third protest was organised by Northampton Trades Union Council on 14th June. Pat was not present at that meeting, nor at any of the protests. On 15th July 2011, two days after the last protest, he was suspended pending an investigation leading to a disciplinary hearing.

The hearing was not convened until December, when it was postponed until the 12th January. In the meantime, NUT members at the school voted to take strike action in Pat's defence. Unfortunately, the ballot was "timed out," and a new indicative ballot is now in progress.

A campaign has been initiated to bring pressure on the school to reinstate Pat. Please stand by for details of action you can take. An online petition has been set up (see below), and we urge you all to sign it, and to encourage others to do so. We shall also take the campaign and the petition out into the wider community of Duston, Northampton and also nationally. Important issues are at stake - the defence of union facilities time, the unfair dismissal of a union representative carrying out his legitimate duties on behalf of his members, and the implications for employees in academy schools. Please throw your weight behind this campaign. "An injury to one is an injury to all."

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/re-instate-pat/

John Buckell, Northampton NUT