Got an email from leftie activist Mark France (and fellow comrade from my anti-apartheid days in B’ham during 1980s) regarding victimisation along with the threat of the sack by his employers, the DWP. See below the press release and his union, PCS, is supporting him.
Good luck Mark, it’s unbelievable what stunts and scams employers pull!
Illegitimi non carborundum!!
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Julie Must GO NOW!
Mark Must Stay!
Mark Anthony France, the 46 year old Spokesperson of the Julie Must GO NOW! Campaign, is facing the prospect of losing his job, because he spoke out against the corruption of parliamentary democracy in the UK.
Mark who works at Bromsgrove Job Centre [as a Grade B Admin Officer earning £14,700 a year] organised the petition that called on Julie Kirkbride MP to resign immediately [ Julie is reported to have had an income of £266,000 last year]. On 28th May Julie Kirkbride ‘stood down’ as Bromsgrove’s MP.
Mark launched the petition during a live Sky News broadcast from Bromsgrove High Street on Saturday 16th
A transcript of this interview is being used by his employer the DWP [Department of Work and Pensions] to sack him from his post.
The charge against him is that “employees should not comment on matters of controversy which fall within Ministers responsibility”
Today, speaking from his family home, Mark said:
“The attempt to silence me will fail. I have a democratic right to speak. Alongside thousands of other Job Centre Staff up and down the country I work hard to ensure that the victims of the recession are treated with dignity. We face a bullying management culture that stamps on the human rights of Job Centre Staff and our Unemployed customers”
“The DWP can punish me and my family for daring to speak the truth…but they will not stop the ‘Peasants Revolt’ that started in Bromsgrove from growing”.
“On Saturday 20th June I will be in Bromsgrove High Street and I will speak”
Good luck Mark!
It’s beyond belief that your personal views publicly expressed in your own time can lead to disciplinary action at work.I thought we had the right to speak freely.As your action and comments are not related to your work in any way I fail to see what grounds they are using for disciplinary proceedings. I am sure that the majority of people in Bromsgrove, like me, are right behind you and will offer any support we can give.Wishing you the very best for this afternoon. Continue to be heard!!!
Karen, Thanks for your comment…from the moment I started the job I was targeted and abused by my line manager… who was also highly skilled at abusing her position of power over other vulnerable adults who were the unemployed customers of the Jobcentre…
I raised my concerns during training events outside of my normal workplace, with senior management [specifically reguesting another line manager]… eventually I launched a formal grievance [which they still have not responded too]
Instead they have targeted me and threaten to drive my family into poverty.
I will ‘continue to be heard’… this sort of bullying has decimated the lives of millions of people across the our society.
People are scared and people are easily intimidated… but I know I speak the truth and I know many, many people recognise that.
I pray that they too find the courage to speak up.
Once again thank you so much for your support
Who would have thought that the comment above by my fellow Bromsgrovian Mark Anthony France would actually be used against him by DWP manager’s in the disciplinary process?
It seems that teams of DWP wicthunters must trawl the internet searching for heretics!
Solidarity with Mark!
I have been ‘served’ by this chap in the jobcentre. He came accross as a very caring guy who wanted to help. Unfortunately over the weeks it became obvious that he was talking a load of rubbish and did not seem inclined to ask his colleagues for the correct information. Hopefully he will make a better politician than he did a civil servant. Luckily my benefit has now been put right by his ex colleagues. Hope he has better luck in his next job.
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““The attempt to silence me will fail. I have a democratic right to speak. Alongside thousands of other Job Centre Staff up and down the country I work hard to ensure that the victims of the recession are treated with dignity. We face a bullying management culture that stamps on the human rights of Job Centre Staff and our Unemployed customers””
It is great that he recognises both sides (the staff and the unemployed) – he seems to be a man of fairness and balance. It is rather easy to take one side, he appears to research and experience both to develop a better understanding of a fair debate.
Most DWP staff are against the unemployed and vice versa. It is good to learn about the universal solidarity of an issue of human rights violation. It effects both groups and both should unite rather than have individual cases.