THE ‘HUSH MONEY’ SCANDAL that has plagued the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) for the past three years took another significant turn earlier today after news broke that the trade union regulator had decided to take the highly unusual step of appointing an official inspector to investigate allegations that secret exit payments were made to a string of employees in contravention of union rules.
Several of the employees had made claims of mistreatment in the workplace and had received the payments as part of confidential non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).
The regulator, Mrs Sarah Bedwell, whose official title is the ‘certification officer’, has been looking into the matter for over a year. She announced her decision to appoint the official inspector in a letter to general secretary Matt Wrack yesterday (30 July).
Mrs Bedwell told Wrack that, following extensive correspondence between her office and the union, she was not satisfied that the union had provided sufficient evidence to show that the exit payments – which collectively amounted to hundreds of thousands of pounds – had been properly authorised by the executive council or any other appropriate committee. She confirmed that she had appointed the inspector to ‘investigate the financial affairs of the Fire Brigades Union’, adding that, ‘There are circumstances to suggest that a rule, or rules, of the union has not been complied with in relation to [the] payments’.
It is only the third time in 25 years that the certification officer has appointed an official inspector to investigate alleged financial irregularities inside a trade union. The seriousness of the matter cannot therefore be overstated.
The development is bound to heap further pressure on the FBU leadership. In March, Wrack was forced to answer questions about the NDAs while appearing before MPs on the home affairs select committee. In follow-up correspondence with the chair of that committee, Wrack point-blank refused to answer further questions or provide additional evidence – a highly-controversial move that placed him at risk of being found in contempt of parliament.
The scandal has also featured regularly in the pages of Private Eye magazine.
The payments came to light in 2021 after this blog was contacted by two whistleblowers. We were provided with evidence showing that several members of staff received secret pay-offs – usually after complaining of some kind of mistreatment in the workplace. One whistleblower told us that the working environment at the union’s head office in south-west London had been ‘toxic’ for many years. It was this evidence that prompted a formal complaint to the certification officer.
Among the employees to receive pay-offs were three elected national officers, who, between them, were paid one-off sums amounting to nearly a quarter of a million pounds. Two of the national officers alleged that they had experienced bullying and harassment at the hands of the general secretary. (For the avoidance of doubt, this blog does not suggest that any of the national officers acted in any way improperly.)
The FBU rule book states that the union’s executive council (EC) is responsible for determining the salaries and associated benefits of employees. Yet there is no evidence to show that EC members even knew about the confidential exit payments or associated NDAs, let alone approved them. It seems, in fact, that no-one outside of a tiny cluster of the union’s most senior officials had any knowledge of what was going on.
The certification officer is in receipt of witness testimony from four former and serving members of the executive council confirming that they knew nothing of the payments. This blog is aware that other officials have also confirmed that they will go on the record to confirm that they were told nothing.
The whole ‘hush money’ saga has brought major embarrassment to the FBU. The most senior leaders of the union thought they could get away with freelancing with members’ money on a colossal scale in an attempt to cover up allegations of workplace bullying. In doing so, they acted like the worst kind of rogue employer.
Now, at long last, the stables are being swept clean.