News out of Scotland concerning the UK office of Grace Communion International:
Tribunal finds charity employee was discrimated against
14 June 2024A Glasgow employment tribunal has ordered a charity to pay a former employee £13,400.
Grace Communion International has been told to pay the sum to Rachel Montgomery, who was employed as a communications coordinator.
The tribunal found the charity, which runs 23 churches across the UK and Ireland, guilty of disability-based harassment and victimisation.
Montgomery was employed by the charity from October 2020 until her sacking in March 2022.
After her contract was terminated, she claimed the charity had refused to take account of her dyslexia – a protected characteristic under disability legislation.
In September 2021, the tribunal heard there was increasing friction in the working relationship between the claimant and Peter Mill and his wife Jackie – pastors at the Edinburgh Church she worked from. Peter had management responsibilities for the claimant in some areas.
On 7 September 2021 the claimant emailed Gavin Henderson, national ministry leader at the church, with the subject heading ‘Workplace Gaslighting’. That was a grievance against Peter and Jackie Mill.
That email included “The subject of gaslighting in the workplace 15 is the topic I’d like to bring to your attention because if this is something I’m suffering then others my [sic] also be suffering as this is something that happens vertically and horizontally in management. For that reason I can’t stay quiet although I am fully aware of what I’m risking in doing so.”
It also found Montgomery’s claim of victimisation was partially successful.
A further grievance was raised, this time against Henderson, in December 2021.
A zoom meeting was held in November 2021 about the management of the church and its website.
On 5 November, Montgomery sent another email to Henderson about the meeting, saying she was “perturbed” about the mention of her overseeing the website, which was incorrect.
The email reads: “It has left me feeling puzzled that it wasn’t corrected, in regards to a website that has not been completed.
“The possible consequences of this might well result (and viewing last night’s comments, already have resulted) in a negative perception of my abilities.”
On 8 December the claimant emailed David Silcox, chair of the board, to raise a grievance against Henderson.
In the email, Montgomery claimed her role was being “deconstructed” and changed to an administrative role.
She claimed she would not be good at the role because of her dyslexia.
The email reads: “Given the severity of things that have happened over the past couple of weeks, I really need to activate whistleblowing now and I need to understand what protections I have as an employee.
“I am sorry to say that over and above this, I want to raise and proceed with an unlawful harassment and discrimination complaint against Gavin Henderson.
“My job role since raising a grievance is being deconstructed at an astonishingly quick speed and I have been subjected to meetings with no agenda regarding performance which has come as a surprise as I’ve never had complaints about my work before.”
A board meeting was held on 27 February 2022 in which the board decided to terminate Montgomery’s contract.
The tribunal concluded her claim of harassment based on her protected characteristic of disability was successful.
It also found Montgomery’s claim of victimisation was partially successful.
Claims concerning whistleblowing, automatic unfair dismissal, disability and sex discrimination were dismissed by the tribunal.
She was awarded £13,428 for injury to feelings, including interest.
Grace has been contacted for comment.
9 comments:
I find this post fascinating. The COG has been well-versed in gaslighting its members and employees throughout the years. Those days of getting by with that are over. Members no longer live in fear of the hierarchy or of losing one's salvation for daring to confront the church.
The fairness or unfairness of the final outcome is highly subject to interpretation, based on one's liberal or conservative leanings. Virtually everything in classic Armstrongism was weighted in the favor of "authority". Yet, here we have the name "Grace". So, are we dealing with a malingerer here?
Under these circumstances, you'd almost need to know the personalities involved to determine who was right and who was wrong. It's not RCG or PCG we're discussing here, after all. Disabilities acts require common sense in their administration. It would be questionable to employ an individual with dyslexia as a proof reader, as an example. One would also not want a person with irritable bowel syndrome and uncontrollable flatulence working direct sales, chauffeuring a limousine, or teaching classes. That individual's skills might be better applied to a slot as a morning radio disc jockey.
Still, interesting. Nice to be reminded that people in Armstrongism are still attracting attention for the wrong reasons!
BB
I'm simply surprised that GCI oversees "23 churches" in Britain and Ireland.
That's surely more than any splinter group - especially the ones that have declared GCI dead.
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I really need to activate whistleblowing now and I need to understand what protections I have as an employee.“ ....and proceed with an unlawful harassment and discrimination complaint against Gavin Henderson....''
They were stupid not to properly work things through she seems a well aware and intelligent worker.
I'm simply surprised that GCI oversees "23 churches" in Britain and Ireland.
There seems to be 30,000 members in 550 churches in 70 countries if one accepts the web site so the average church size is 50 people. On this basis there are about 1200 members in Britain and Ireland.
My teachers always took marks off because of my dyslexia. No wonder I could never get a good job. I should sue the school system.
It won't be long until stupidity is a protected characteristic. There are plenty of people eager to vote for that.
I think the main parts of this case have been missed by focusing only on dyslexia. On page 147 paragraph 314 it show the president of GCI Greg Williams(Who took over from Takatch)from the US flew over to the UK and made a national announcement to discredit the ex-employee and her husband. It was found that Greg Williams did this because the the ex-employee had made a protected disclosure (whistleblew on the organisation as a whole). On reading the judgement this appears to be the main part of why they were fined. Page 67 P.132-133 shows her husband was old school WCG style disfellowshipped on the same day the employees contract was terminated, this is while she was whistleblowing. Old WCG tactics of victimising families are alive and well here and appears to be more dangerous as they are concealed under the banner of Grace. The judgement shows that the national ministry leader in the UK Gavin Henderson page 118 P239 victimised the ex-employee as a result of her making protected disclosures about his discriminatory behaviour. This will be interesting to follow as this case could go through an appeal process considering it looks as though the ex-employee had to represent herself with no legal support as it suggests at the first page of the judgement. I also guess false reporting of church numbers could be an aspect of whistleblowing as data laws are strict in the UK but thats the only conjecture I'll put in this comment. :-)
Wonder if King Charles will peruse the case & harbour a private opinion about it. His busy Sis Anne probably tosses it in the tabloids circular file 🗑️🗞️ then keeps on ridin' her horsies.
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