The union representing senior Public Servants throughout the United Kingdom says it has received more complaints about bullying by Scottish Government Ministers than by all other UK Ministerial Departments combined.
General Secretary of the FDA union, Dave Penman said there had been 30 Ministerial bullying complaints by workers in five Scottish Departments over the past decade.
“This compares with only a handful of issues raised within other UK and devolved Government Departments across the FDA’s membership over the same period,” Mr Penman said.
He said the complaints referred to “a whole range of behaviour: Shouting and bawling, unreasonable demands, calls at three in the morning — and concerns that these complaints would not be dealt with properly and if raised could damage future careers”, Mr Penman said.
The intervention by the FDA comes in the week a dedicated cross-party committee formed of Members of the Scottish Parliament began its inquiry into the Government’s handling in 2018 of two misconduct claims against former Scottish National Party First Minister, Alex Salmond.
Giving evidence to the Parliamentary Committee, head of the Scottish Public Service, Leslie Evans (pictured) did not comment when asked by Conservative member, Murdo Fraser about claims made during the court case against Mr Salmond that there had been a policy that female Public Servants should not work alone with him.
Committee Convener, Linda Fabiani blocked the question put to Ms Evans, arguing that it was not appropriate — a view disputed by other committee members.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said later that Ms Evans would “be happy to write to the committee to address this issue if the Convener wishes”.
The hearings are continuing and are expected to also examine claims of unacceptable conduct towards Public Servants by Ministers since Nicola Sturgeon took over from Mr Salmond in 2014.
Edinburgh, 22 August 2020
