Reading Council for Racial Equality is Found Guilty of Unfair Dismissal

Reading Council for Racial Equality (RCRE) has certainly not been winning any friends outside of the local Labour Party recently. When the previous Conservative-led administration decided to cut one of its grants and suggested that it justify its receipt of funds by submitting a bid with a business case, it launched a vitriolic campaign which included threats of legal action, accusations of racism, and a blatant politicisation of the annual Holocaust Memorial event at the Civic Offices.

Conservative and Lib Dem Councillors have long questioned the impartiality of RCRE and the value for money for the significant sums that the Council has granted it year on year. In the recent local elections prominent RCRE members campaigned publicly for the Labour party in key wards and did little in various forums to disguise their political affiliations. There have also been many suggestions that the internal management of the organisation left a lot to be desired, with cronyism and petty factionalism being a regular feature.

Rajinder Sophal

This has been highlighted by a press release I received today detailing a decision of the Employment Tribunal this week that RCRE director and former Labour Mayor of Reading, should pay a former employee the sum of £3,113.52 for unlawful deduction from his wages and breach of contract. Further Rajinder Sohpal has been ordered to pay £570 in compensation for unfair dismissal. The total amount that Mr Sohpal will have to pay Mr Siddharth Deva, the former employee, is £3,683.52.

The Tribunal’s reserved judgment is 16 pages long, and it is scathing in its criticism of the RCRE and of Mr Ejaz Elahi, the chair of RCRE and former chair of its so-called personnel subcommittee. The Tribunal stated that it was particularly concerned about Mr Elahi’s biased attitude towards Mr Deva. It took the view that Mr Elahi had failed to give Mr Deva a fair hearing.

The Tribunal unanimously decided that Mr Deva had been unfairly dismissed. It considered the RCRE’s disciplinary procedures excessively biased against Mr Deva, and the proceedings conducted in a very unfair and subjective manner.

The Tribunal also did not accept some of Mr Sohpal’s evidence and that of his witnesses, in particular the evidence provided by Ejaz Elahi. The Tribunal concluded that Mr Sohpal’s motivation to drive an employee’s grievance against Mr Deva in January 2010, which led ultimately to Mr. Deva’s dismissal after a protracted suspension, was linked to Mr Sohpal’s opposition to a number other unrelated issues. The Tribunal also did not accept some of the evidence of Mr. Harish Raichura, former chair of the RCRE.

“This case sadly demonstrates just what a shameful organisation the RCRE is. It is not fit for purpose,” says Mr. Deva.

This is the organisation that Reading’s minority Labour administration decided to award a further grant of £60,000 to at Cabinet last night. Ironically one of the services that RCRE offers is help with employment tribunal hearings!