UK rail minister got engineer sacked for raising safety concerns

[Starmill]

It is these same people that are apparently incapable of understanding that those at the top of society need to be held to the highest of standards in all their activities as a reasonable condtion for the huge privileges and wealth their positions provide. Not to mention the corrosive corruption that follows from senior government officials being able to act like this.

I just can't understand this mindset that Hendy and Dennis are of an equivalent responsibility to be honest, truthful and sincere. One's the de-facto leader of the industry speaking in their capacity at work, the other is just one person speaking for themselves only in a private capacity. There's little public interest in what Dennis does or doesn't say. There's every interest in Hendy's words for all of us.

 

[35B]

I work in consulting and have heard of clients demanding all internal communications from consulting that relate to specific projects. I've also heard that the DfT wouldn't allow consultants to work on certain projects if they were particularly outspoken on certain topics. Its certainly heavy handed to do such things but the client has the right to do that.

This. You don't mess your own bed. Clients - including public bodies - have strict publicity requirements and if I commented publicly in even neutral terms about clients in a way that could be associated to my employer's work, I'd expect to be in the mire.

If a contracting firm shows signs of being associated with publicity about a customer - even favourable publicity - that isn't authorised by the client, that is contract threatening. I've seen that written into contracts, and I've seen it much more brutally enforced than in this case.

Whatever I think about Hendy, or NR's, thickness of skin, the idea that this was for personal benefit really stretches credibility. And, even if there was a grudge, this case really was open and shut.

 

[Wolfie]

I agree that Dennis' actions are absolutely not the actions of someone wanting to go for an unfair dismissal claim. You don't sell merch on Twitter about your alleged unfair dismissal.

He's turned it into a massive publicity opportunity for himself which isn't great. I suspect that he regards the damage to Hendy's reputation as a nice bonus.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Aug 2024 ==

I just can't understand this mindset that Hendy and Dennis are of an equivalent responsibility to be honest, truthful and sincere. One's the de-facto leader of the industry speaking in their capacity at work, the other is just one person speaking for themselves only in a private capacity. There's little public interest in what Dennis does or doesn't say. There's every interest in Hendy's words for all of us.

Absolutely

 

[800001]

All this publicity will do wonders for the sale of Gareth’s book that came out very very recently

 

[The Middle]

All this publicity will do wonders for the sale of Gareth’s book that came out very very recently

Not on sale yet. However, considering he is hawking for a free lawyer on Twitter at the moment I hope he hasn't been naive enough to not have had one give his book the once over before it is published.

 

[800001]

Not on sale yet. However, considering he is hawking for a free lawyer on Twitter at the moment I hope he hasn't been naive enough to not have had one give his book the once over before it is published.

You can buy/order now on Amazon £4.99!

 

[Starmill]

He's turned it into a massive publicity opportunity for himself which isn't great. I suspect that he regards the damage to Hendy's reputation as a nice bonus.

It's definitely something I wouldn't do, it comes across a little distasteful, and his communication style has never been for me. But then if it works for him then it's what works for him. Were Dennis to be appointed to the board of a major state body, or the Lords, or become an MP, I'd obviously question it further.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Aug 2024 ==

You can buy/order now on Amazon £4.99!

I can see in the listing it states publication date 12 November 2024. If you click through to the order it does then say it's for pre-order.

 

[The Middle]

Now been picked up by the BBC News website

Transport minister faces claims he threatened firm in old job

The Tories says there are "serious" questions to answer over Lord Hendy's appointment.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[Starmill]

Now been picked up by the BBC News website

Transport minister faces claims he threatened firm in old job

The Tories says there are "serious" questions to answer over Lord Hendy's appointment.

www.bbc.co.uk

It certainly will be interesting to see how the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster replies (not that Whatley is well placed to be asking, but still, it's in the public interest).

 

[Iskra]

Network Rail stating this:

Decisions on how employee conduct is handled is a matter for employers – in this case, Systra."

…After their chairman has decisively weighed-in to get someone sacked, is quite an interesting statement.

 

[Wolfie]

Network Rail stating this:



…After their chairman has decisively weighed-in to get someone sacked, is quite an interesting statement.

That's an "oh crap, nothing to see here, honest" statement if l've ever seen one.....

 

[43096]

I should be astonished that so many people don’t seem to understand how the world works. I should be astonished, but I’m not.

 

[GordonT]

Have Network Rail chairmen (and those of Railtrack before it) not got something of a history of tetchiness and focus on matters other than those which a reasonable man/woman on the Clapham train would consider to be worthy of more thorough attention e.g. periodic unsafe overcrowding within a major railway terminus or other safety issues?

 

[The Middle]

I really haven’t followed Gareth’s career that much but I have, as an M&EE man of several years experience, found some of his comments odd and was tempted to engage but got warned off it by colleagues who had tried and found that he wasn’t receptive to critical discussion. Some of those colleagues found that the conversation became abusive in tone and some also found themselves barred for expressing an opinion which didn’t suit his preferred narrative

He does seem completely incapable of any reasoned debate. His favourite responses on twitter to any contrary opinions seem to be "you are wrong" or "bad take" without making any effort to expand further.

 

[387masterrace]

Ethics aside, this is staggeringly stupid management by Hendy. He has basically doomed Dennis out of ever being in an engineering job, meaning that he will now have no choice but to make a living out of becoming a very popular (and very loud!) critic of Hendy and co. while simultaneously giving Gareth Dennis a huge boost in his profile.

 

[norbitonflyer]

Hendy was free to rebut the accusation in public by contacting the paper Dennis was interviewed for to say "Gareth Dennis is wrong because this, this and this. There is no longer any risk to passengers using London Euston station of crushing or other hazards during disruption to services because my organisation has done this, this, and this."

Quite so - indeed had he done so he would have refuted (disproved) the accusation rather than merely rebutted it (merely asserted it to be untrue) although many people misuse the term "refute" when they mean "deny".

But Hendys letter does not even rebut the safety allegation. He just says that the subject should not be mentioned.

NRs own statement, that the ORR's concerns were covered off in December, is so vague as to be meaningless - what was actually done? Certainly no one has suggested that the screens have been repurposed, nor are the platforms being displayed any earlier.

 

[61653 HTAFC]

When Hendy was appointed by Haigh I totally agreed. I thought he could do a great job.

I'd have rather seen Lord Adonis get his old brief back, he was one of only a few highlights of the latter days of the last Labour administration, and responsible for the resumption of electrification schemes and the launch of HS2. Hendy may be more qualified on paper but he's shown himself in this affair to be arrogant and thin-skinned.
Presumably Sir Kier didn't think he could control Adonis's ambition...

 

[redreni]

I share the view expressed by a number of others that nothing will come of this.

Mr Dennis can't avail himself of whistleblowing protections because those apply when you disclose wrongdoing (and only then if you've first raised the matter with the person or organisation responsible for the wrongdoing and it has become clear they're not going to act). He didn't disclose anything, he repeated what was already in the public domain.

He also can't avail himself of legal protections against unfair dismissal because Systra probably had a fair reason for dismissal, and anyway he hadn't been with them long enough to get anything out of them even if they dismissed him unfairly.

My concern here is about the ability of professionals to speak reasonably freely in a personal capacity. Of course I appreciate that freedom is and always has been subject to all kinds of constraints.

I just happen to take the very general view that, in our society, we are too constrained and this is often made worse by professionals assuming they are much more constrained than they actually are (or, at least, wanting to make sure they're not the one sticking their neck out should somebody in authority decide to make an example of somebody).

Furthermore, I take the view that the people who explore the limits of what they can get away with deserve support from the rest of us, whether or not we happen to agree with what they say and how they say it. As long as it's intelligent and reasonable, it ought to be defended. I don't regard any of Mr Dennis's publicly professed views as extreme or disreputable.

If there are no consequences for Lord Hendy, that will in my view be bad for public discourse. People will wind their neck in more. We already wind our necks in more than is good for us.

 

[68000]

I suppoorted the appo9i

I share the view expressed by a number of others that nothing will come of this.

Mr Dennis can't avail himself of whistleblowing protections because those apply when you disclose wrongdoing (and only then if you've first raised the matter with the person or organisation responsible for the wrongdoing and it has become clear they're not going to act). He didn't disclose anything, he repeated what was already in the public domain.

He also can't avail himself of legal protections against unfair dismissal because Systra probably had a fair reason for dismissal, and anyway he hadn't been with them long enough to get anything out of them even if they dismissed him unfairly.

My concern here is about the ability of professionals to speak reasonably freely in a personal capacity. Of course I appreciate that freedom is and always has been subject to all kinds of constraints.

I just happen to take the very general view that, in our society, we are too constrained and this is often made worse by professionals assuming they are much more constrained than they actually are (or, at least, wanting to make sure they're not the one sticking their neck out should somebody in authority decide to make an example of somebody).

Furthermore, I take the view that the people who explore the limits of what they can get away with deserve support from the rest of us, whether or not we happen to agree with what they say and how they say it. As long as it's intelligent and reasonable, it ought to be defended. I don't regard any of Mr Dennis's publicly professed views as extreme or disreputable.

If there are no consequences for Lord Hendy, that will in my view be bad for public discourse. People will wind their neck in more. We already wind our necks in more than is good for us.

The issue here is not really about Dennis, it is about the abuse of power from one of the executives

 

[GLC]

This correction made me smile. Attached is two images. First is a now deleted tweet saying

There's a lot more to say about this ridiculous (and hugely personally damaging)
story, but I think that will do for tonight. In the meantime, @LordPeterHendy - you have failed to end my career. I will not be so
careless in ending yours.

Second image is one that says

There's a lot more to say about this ridiculous (and hugely personally damaging)
story, but I think that will do for tonight.

 

[Cesarcollie]

Let’s be clear - Hendy wasn’t doing it in an underhand way - it was a letter on headed notepaper. If he wanted to do it without publicity, he would rung the chairman of Systra and not put it in writing at all.

Spelling out the consequences of any public statements or accusations by either the supplier or one of its employees, especially a prominent employee, is not unknown. In a public contract you usually have an agreement that you cannot, either directly or implicitly, slag the client off or act against the interests of the client. If you are an employee you do not have the right, as a private citizen, to just go to a journo and spout off about one of your firms clients and not face any consequences.

I don’t think people here realise how organisations (both public and private) work at times. Pressure is a recognised tool of the trade and is often deployed. It can get threatening if one party thinks they have been wronged and those at a senior level tend to have notoriously thin skins. The DfT are another party who have, in the past, “made changes”, on demand of senior officials.

Like I said before, it’s a hard world out there and if you mess with the big boys, you are likely to get in trouble if you are not careful. Blur the distinction between your professional and private lives and it may well end in tears.

Exactly this!

 

[Doctor Fegg]

Not on sale yet. However, considering he is hawking for a free lawyer on Twitter at the moment I hope he hasn't been naive enough to not have had one give his book the once over before it is published.

That’s what publishers are for. Authors don’t routinely engage lawyers themselves.

 

[Starmill]

NRs own statement, that the ORR's concerns were covered off in December, is so vague as to be meaningless - what was actually done? Certainly no one has suggested that the screens have been repurposed, nor are the platforms being displayed any earlier

There was one concrete change mentioned by Network Rail that I could see. It was installing additional screens in September. There are two very obvious problems with this, firstly that they could have achieved that by simply not removing the previous large screens, and second that work hasn't yet begun, many months down the line.

If anyone's able to set the record straight by telling us what other hard changes were made to mitigate the risk I'd be happy to hear that.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Aug 2024 ==

I don't regard any of Mr Dennis's publicly professed views as extreme or disreputable.

A really important point is that even if you did, it would still be an abuse of office for Hendy to react as he did.

By all means reject the claims. By all means offer facts and evidence pointing out the inaccuracy. But don't threaten to dishonestly misappropriate public money for your own ends.

 

[43096]

But don't threaten to dishonestly misappropriate public money for your own ends.

How many more times? This is not misappropriating public money. It is not for Hendy's own ends.

I've no idea why you persist with this line which is clearly not true and might be construed as defamatory.

 

[dcs34]

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 30 Aug 2024 ==


A really important point is that even if you did, it would still be an abuse or office for Hendy to react as he did.

By all means reject the claims. By all means offer facts and evidence pointing out the inaccuracy. But don't threaten to dishonestly misappropriate public money for your own ends.

This. Playing the man not the ball. Dennis is irrelevant to the issue here - whatever one thinks of him - and where he is placed on the scale from irritant to whistle-blower is immaterial.

The chair of a public sector body should not have sent that letter. It has a very clear purpose and intent, even beyond the written words. It speaks of a certain type of management culture that is more focused about subjective image than the objective truth. That is not a type of culture that should be anywhere near the levers of power for this country.

 

[anthony263]

I'd have rather seen Lord Adonis get his old brief back, he was one of only a few highlights of the latter days of the last Labour administration, and responsible for the resumption of electrification schemes and the launch of HS2. Hendy may be more qualified on paper but he's shown himself in this affair to be arrogant and thin-skinned.
Presumably Sir Kier didn't think he could control Adonis's ambition...

To be honest I can see lord adonis getting a call soon. Like it or not I think lord adonis should have been offered the job before Hendy.

I think can see Hendy being asked to walk especially now the BBC have got hold of it

 

[matt_world2004]

Public sector organisations shouldn't be threatening people's livelihoods to dodge public accountability particularly over issues that can cause injury or loss of life.

 

[Clarence Yard]

Starmill, what are you talking about? There is no abuse of office or misappropriating of public funds.

All there is here is a Chair of a large and powerful organisation putting the squeeze on a supplier over the actions of one of its employees.

You might not like the tactics but sometimes in business you have to play hard. It’s a culture that is common in this country when organisations feel threatened. The old phrase of “when you have someone by the (nethers), their hearts and minds follow” applies here.

It can be brutal and is perfectly legal.

 

[Horizon22]

If anyone's able to set the record straight by telling us what other hard changes were made to mitigate the risk I'd be happy to hear that.

Such information is probably private, like management processes, communication procedures etc. It may not be public facing and unless we've got specific people with knowledge it might not come out. They may have changed the crowd control plan for instance. But the Office for Rail Regulation - an institution that TOCs and NR take extremely seriously - were happy with the changes.

 

[telstarbox]

Thing is, if it was about a freight yard in the back of Lincolnshire NR could probably say 'we're on top of it' and have the benefit of the doubt. Because it's Euston everyone from football fans to BBC journalists will be familiar with the concourse of chaos so they've lost control of their narrativo here.