The case of a senior NHS employee getting £933,000 compensation for racial discrimination and unfair dismissal seems to have provoked a range of responses in the media, including some carping criticism over the size of the pay-out.
But I think the focus should really be on how the situation was allowed to develop in the first place.
Elliot Browne was a divisional director at Central Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust until he was dismissed in 2008. Represented by the Unite union, he took his case to an employment tribunal and was awarded compensation for unfair dismissal, aggravated damages and loss of earnings and pension.
Unite’s head of health, Rachael Maskell said: ‘Unfortunately, the case of Elliot Browne is not unique within the NHS. Discrimination and harassment in the health service is all too common from our experience as a trade union and needs to be rooted out.’
‘NHS employers need to establish comprehensive and effective training programmes and human resources’ functions so that there will be no repetition of this case. Dignity at work needs to be a reality.’
The union’s regional officer, Keith Hutson, commented: ‘Hopefully this will act as a catalyst for his former employer to face up to their obligations in tackling the culture of institutionalised racism that they seem happy to endorse and that is underpinned by a cavalier attitude in their management style’.
Inevitably some people saw another side to the story, with the Daily Mail trumpeting the fact that Mr Browne now earns £50,000 a year running a consultancy firm. Quite what that has to do with the way he was said to have been treated I really don’t know.
Perhaps instead of focusing on the pay-out more time and energy should be spent on tackling some of the serious management shortcomings in parts of the NHS.
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