Biased Ford manager set for LRA
Questions have been raised about the impartiality of Ford plant
manager Jim Collins after his appointment to the Labour Relations
Agency which mediates in industrial disputes in the Six Counties.
He was one of three managers who ``deliberately concealed''
information from the Fair Employment Tribunal for nearly three
years in a case of discrimination by a Catholic man, Tom Irvine,
against Ford. Collins was found to be shielding a senior Ford
executive responsible for blocking Irvine's promotion.
Irvine was awarded £40,000 by the FET in 1996 after it found that
in April 1992 his appointment to the post of training officer was
blocked on the orders of Stuart Hamer, Director of Education,
Training and Development at Ford Europe.
The 1996 Tribunal was also told that Collins had been involved in
deliberately concealing Hamer's involvement in blocking the
promotion. Despite evidence from the interviewing panel that
Irvine was the best person for the job, the Tribunal found that
he had been labelled an ``active Catholic'' and been ``discriminated
against because of his religion and involvement in fair
employment issues.''
Hamer, the man shielded by Collins, had previously attended an
``unprecedented'' meeting with 10 Protestant managers from the
Belfast plant, where the managers had complained about the
promotion of two Catholics.
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