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Union Safety Rep Victimised And Dismissed

Help defend victimised union safety rep Penny Gower!

Rory O’Neill Editor, Hazards magazine and Professor, Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group, University of Stirling, Scotland has issued a plea for support from all USRs and Trade Union activists for Penny Gower, a Union safety Rep who has been dismissed from work as result of undertaking her USR function.

Rory, said. "At a time the government has conceded additional protection from blacklisting and victimisation is needed for construction workers, this case is a reminder that there is no effective sanction on employers who victimise their reps – something that should also be remedied. Victimising safety reps is not just wrong, it perpetuates poor workplace conditions and it should be subject to criminal sanctions."

Below is a note from Alan Ferguson, president of teaching union EIS’s FELA section. EIS activist Penny Gower, a workplace health and safety rep, has been fired for undertaking core health and safety functions.

Please offer whatever support you can, including encouraging your contacts to send letters of support to the union and protest emails to management at Carnegie College. Contact details are in Alan’s email, below.

Calling all trade union activists!

We would be very grateful if you could raise the following at your next union branch/section or workplace meetings:

Penny Gower, a longstanding activist of the Scottish teaching union, the EIS, has been summarily dismissed from her job at Carnegie College, for conducting a safety inspection, carried out at a time that caused no disruption to her teaching duties. She was given no opportunity to call witnesses, or appeal the decision. Penny was previously disciplined for highlighting the fact that the college had sent a lecturer into an isolated classroom with prisoners. When that teacher was attacked, he found he was locked in when he tried to leave the room.

The union is providing full legal support, but this sacking has implications wider than Further Education. If managements can sack safety reps with impunity then the safety of all workers is put at risk. It is nothing short of scandalous that a college management should act in this way. It is vitally important that solidarity is shown with the EIS Branch at Carnegie College.

Pleases send messages of support to the Branch ( gwatt@carnegiecollege.ac.uk ) and to Penny at pgower@stevenson.ac.uk, and protest messages to the management ( mphilp@carnegiecollege.ac.uk).

Yours in solidarity
Alan Ferguson
EIS FELA President.



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