14th February 2003

Union Secret Payoff to be Disclosed

Amicus MSF today lost another Certification Officer hearing:

"Amicus is ordered to give the Applicant access to inspect those accounting records of the Union which relate to a termination payment made to Mr Chowcat by the Union in or about 1999" Trade Union Certification Officer 14th Feb 2003

The applicant was Jim Mortimer, amicus member since 1942, ex-General Secretary of the Labour Party (when that was a respectable position), ex-amicus National Executive Committee member (ditto), former Chair of the conciliation service ACAS and current Chair of amicus Thames-side and London South East branch.

In his decision the Certification Officer quoted a motion carried at MSF 2000 annual conference after the scandal first broke:

"a motion was carried, motion 47, which instructed the National Executive Committee not to make 'any more secret payments to employees of the union upon termination of their employment'."

It is widely suspected within the union that the secret payoff was to "buy the silence" of Chowcat regarding corruption allegations against General Secretary Lyons. The CO decision makes it certain that the subject of Roger Lyons' continued employment by the union as a spare 'joint' General Secretary, without election, will be a major topic at this summer's amicus annual conference.

The CO ruled that the fact that the payoff had a confidentiality clause in it did not allow amicus to block inspection of the books.

"[The confidentiality clause] may help to explain the Union's refusal to comply with its statutory obligations but it does not excuse them."

In a final blow to Roger Lyons, the CO rejected the union's request that the actual amounts of the payoff be blacked out prior to Jim's inspection:

"To delete the financial information from an accounting record would ordinarily undermine the purpose of the legislation and would, in this case, defeat the purpose of Mr Mortimer's request."

[Certification Office] Read the full decision
[LYONSweb] Original story 'Books Inspectors seek CO resolution'
[rogerlyons.com] Read Lyons' defence to the corruption charges
[rogerlyons.com] Read John Chowcats original evidence to an Employment Tribunal
Posted by www.rogerlyons.com on 17th February 2003, updated 18th February 2003