Westminster council dealing with seven disciplinary cases
By Adrian Zorzut, Local Democracy Reporter
A west London council has revealed it is dealing with seven “disciplinary cases”.
Westminster council said 11 probes have already been closed this year alone, and the news comes after a bumper year of complaints in 2021/22.
During an Audit and Performance committee meeting on Thursday of last week, a senior officer in charge of the complaints process said: “There was a spike in that year.
“To be honest, we’ve seen this across the industry – and I’m a fellow of the CIPD [Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development] so I’ve spoken to a lot of colleagues across different sectors – and that there was a spike after the pandemic.
“Disciplines and grievances (cases) are seen across all (sectors), whether that’s the result of coming out of lockdown or whatever it might be, but I don’t have any concerns about that. “
He added: “Just to reassure the members, I’ve got the current data for the year to date – that’s 2022/23 – and we’re back towards a similar number of disciplinary cases we had last year.”
He said that during the heat of the pandemic in 2021 London councils agreed to halt all disciplinary and grievance proceedings, which the officer said had “effectively (created) a bow wave for the following year”.
He also said the problem wasn’t confined to a particular part of the council, with cases spread across all departments.
According to council documents, there were 30 cases opened and 22 closed in 2021/22, some of which were brought forward from the previous financial year.
Of those, 10 had no case to answer, while three were handed a formal written warning and another four were given a final written warning.
Four went on to resign and one left by mutual agreement. There were no dismissals.
These related to allegations of gross negligence, gross misconduct, taking absence without authorisation, a breach of professional standards and behaviour which could lead to a breakdown in trust and confidence and bullying and harassment.
Pictured top: Westminster City Hall (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Andreas Praefcke)
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