Employment tribunal finds FDA members at National Library of Wales were unfairly dismissed

10 Nov 2014 12:58 PM

An employment tribunal has recently found that two FDA members were unfairly dismissed from their jobs at the National Library of Wales.

Arwel Jones and Elwyn Williams were initially suspended and then demoted, following concerns over a procurement exercise where there were some technical breaches.

The Library had already accepted that there was no question of fraud. Additionally, neither Jones nor Williams had been involved in organising such a procurement exercise before, and had not been offered any appropriate training.

FDA National Officer for Wales, Paul Neilson, said: "While we are of course pleased with the finding, it's unfortunate that we had to take the case this far when we've made attempts to settle the dispute with the Library both before and during the tribunal."

The FDA is currently awaiting the reasons for the employment tribunal judgement.

Notes for editors

1. The FDA is the trade union for the UK's senior public servants and professionals. FDA membership includes more than 19,000 senior civil servants, Government policy advisors, prosecutors, diplomats, tax professionals, economists, solicitors and other professionals working across Government and the NHS.

2. The FDA (formerly the First Division Association) should be referred to simply as "the FDA" and can be described as "the senior public servants' union". 

3. The FDA can be found on Twitter @FDA_union and at www.fda.org.uk.

4. The FDA's alternative White Paper - 'Delivering for the Nation: Securing a World-Class Civil Service - outlining our analysis of the challenges facing the civil service and our recommendations for change, can be read here.

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