Sandwell Council - former boss 'astonished' at four-month wait over bullying and sexism complaint
A former senior council boss says she has been waiting for four months for a local authority to take action on a complaint of sexist and misogynistic bullying.
Melanie Dudley, the ex-assistant chief executive of Sandwell Council, lodged an official complaint in October over allegations that a senior councillor had sent offensive Whatsapp messages about her to a local blogger.
She said she was ‘surprised and disappointed’ with the lack of progress on her case, which council leader Steve Eling has put down to police involvement.
“I am very unhappy about the length of time this is taking, particularly in light of the fact that the complaint is about bullying and sexist behaviour,” Ms Dudley told the Express & Star.
“I would have thought that the council would want to prioritise this, and not put it to the bottom of the pile.
“To sit on this for four months is astonishing.”
Her complaint was raised in Parliament last week by James Morris, the Tory MP for Halesowen and Rowley Regis.
He told MPs the messages came from Councillor Richard Marshall, but followed a meeting with Mr Eling, who said he wanted to ‘open a line of communication’ with the blogger.
“They include both Councillors Eling and Marshall asking the blogger to give the assistant chief executive a ‘kicking’ and supplying information relating to her personal life,” Mr Morris said.
“Messages were also sent in respect to the senior officer’s employment, including that she should be sent home to ‘consider her position’.”
Ms Dudley left her role in 2016 following an overhaul of senior management at the crisis-hit authority.
She said the exchange between the councillors ‘denigrated’ the quality of her work and suggested subjects for tweets which could be used to bully her.
In a letter sent to Mr Eling last week, Ms Dudley said the tone and content of these messages was ‘bullying, misogynistic and sexist’ throughout.
She added that other than being told in December that an independent person had been appointed to the investigation, she has had no other contact from the authority.
Mr Eling said that he had received a letter from Ms Dudley, but said the council’s investigation had been delayed by the police.
“She wrote to me, and I’ve explained that I can’t get involved in any of these things,” he said.
“I know she is in contact with the council’s monitoring officer and presumably he will respond to that.
“I understand it has been delayed by the police. It is not to be taken forward while they are investigating matters that relate to the evidence base that is being used.
“The police have asked for any standards inquiries that relate to one particular evidence base to be put on hold while they undertake investigations.”
He added that Ms Dudley had been told of the police direction on the matter.
Mr Marshall quit his cabinet position on the Labour-controlled authority in November.
He is currently the subject of another probe alleging that he sent offensive Whatsapp messages about fellow councillors Maria Crompton and Olwen Jones.
The messages were sent from a phone number listed as belonging to him on the council’s website.
Last month it emerged that the secretaries of seven cabinet members had been suspended ‘on HR advice’.
Darren Carter, the authority’s executive director of resources, stressed that no councillors were involved in the decision and said the suspensions had now been lifted.
