Disability organisation in dismissal case was asked for bullying course

MANAGEMENT at St Michael’s House - who deny a senior clinical psychologist’s claim he was bullied out of his job - had been asked for a training course on bullying, the Employment Appeals Tribunal heard yesterday.

When the request was made, bullying in the workplace had become a topical issue, according to Emer Lynch, who spent seven years as a social worker at the Dublin-based disability service provider.

In the event, no training course was held, the tribunal was told on the sixth day of Dr Mark Harrold’s constructive dismissal case.

Dr Harrold, who resigned from his post in 2004, claims he became a victim of bullying when he started to voice his concerns about care practices.

Some of his concerns related to the treatment of former St Michael’s disabled resident Peter McKenna, aged 60, who had Down syndrome and Alzheimer’s disease.

Mr McKenna died in October 2000, two weeks after his admission to the Leas Cross nursing home in controversial circumstances. The nursing home has since closed.

Ms Lynch described how she got information on bullying from her husband, who had been on an anti-bullying training course. She sought such training for staff in St Michael’s.

It was a difficult time while negotiations were taking place on regionalising the structures in St Michael’s House between 1999 and 2000.

Tom Mallon SC, for St Michael’s House, said the process involved 400 hours of intense negotiations, which was equal to 10 working weeks.

Ms Kelly said while she was not a union official, she had been one of the rotating representatives for social workers during the nine months of negotiations.

Describing what she termed a “culture of fear” that pervaded the organisation, Ms Kelly said she felt management people were “speaking to you as if you were a school child”.

The question of bullying was not on the agenda during the negotiations on regionalisation. Their discussions only addressed structural issues.

While the commitment of the staff to their work at St Michael’s was “huge” the style of management was a separate matter. Staff felt bullied; within her own department they felt bullied.

Jacinta Kitt, who was called on behalf of Dr Harrold as an expert on bullying, said bullies “played games” with people and were not interested in addressing personal or organisational shortcomings.

Self-obsessed, they considered they were never wrong and pushed out or isolated people who would question their decisions.

The case is expected to take at least four more days when it resumes on June 9.