Bullying was ignored at Waygood Gallery, tribunal told

Oct 23 2009 By Adrian Pearson, The Journal

A TRIBUNAL has heard how art bosses allegedly ignored staff bullying so as not to put  a £10m city regeneration project at risk.

The board at the Waygood Gallery have denied claims they overlooked repeated bullying claims against chief executive Helen Smith because they did not want to risk losing her.

Ms Smith is a leading figure in plans to use taxpayer funds to open a new art gallery in the city’s High Bridge.

The gallery management team have already been labelled by city leaders as one contributing factor in a multi-million pound overspend on the gallery which has seen Newcastle Council forced to find extra cash.

Ms Smith has been appearing at an employment tribunal to answer claims she bullied artist and gallery worker Topsy Qur’et and had him fired following a row in July 2008.

At yesterday’s hearing former board member Carol McGuigan, Mr Qur’et’s partner, said that despite 10 years with the gallery she felt she had no option but to resign in order to speak out about what she had witnessed.

She said the board had not looked at bullying claims against Ms Smith and had not seriously considered Mr Qur’et’s case.

Ms McGuigan said: “I am extremely dismayed that members of the board were prepared to ruin the professional reputation of this gentle, generous man over a single, highly uncharacteristic and unwitnessed claim.

“I can only assume they were reluctant to challenge Helen. Perhaps, because of the difficult challenges the building project was presenting they didn’t want to risk her departure. Indeed, according to Helen Baker-Alder’s disciplinary hearing outcome letter to Mr Qur’et, the board were actually fearful that Helen Smith would resign if she did not get her way on this matter.

“If it is the case that the board capitulated to this kind of pressure instead of investigating and then upholding the truth, this is biased, expedient and cowardice.”

Speaking for the gallery, Henry Trory said large sections of Ms McGuigan’s evidence was based on “total speculation”.

He added: “You are not able to point to any evidence that shows people on the board are not independent and are not capable of viewing things independently.”

He later added: “It has been suggested that the board is in the pocket of Helen Smith. I would invite you (the tribunal judges) to reject that because there is no evidence presented to you that this is the case.”

Mr Trory added that Helen Smith’s experiences of Mr Qur’et, in which he had  upset her to the point she was crying and shaking, was enough to cause her to lose “trust and confidence” in Mr Qur’et and that this was  justification for his dismissal.

Mr Qur’et is said to have “stared out” Ms Smith when they were alone in her studio.

The claimant and Ms Smith were involved in long running talks over the nature of Mr Qur’et’s continued employment at the gallery.
In July 2008 he entered her studio while she was alone and asked questions over what was happening with his job. Ms Smith claims that when  asked to leave Mr Qur’et stood staring at her “unemotionally” and without trying to leave.

As she become more agitated Ms Smith started raising her voice and eventually screamed at Mr Qur’et to leave her studio. She  had to push him, she claims, after becoming frightened of him.

Mr Trory said: “This was enough for someone to say I have had it with this person and I can’t work with them anymore.”

He added that a worried Ms Smith pushed Mr Qur’et as part of a “fight or flight” reaction forced onto her in a moment of panic.

Mr Trory, in his summing up, went on to  say: “It might be a different case if  it was a male environment but this is a woman who was alone with the man at the time.”

Mr Qur’et, who represented himself with help from lay friend and brother Tony Roberts, claimed he and others had spoken to Ms Smith in her gallery on many occasions, and that the date in question was a Saturday on which he was at the gallery while at work.

Mr Trory also dismissed earlier claims that Mr Qur’et did not have an opportunity to question the management at his disciplinary hearing.  At the time the case against him was put by the same board member who chaired the meeting.

Mr Trory said a full investigation had already been made into Mr Qur’et’s and Ms Smith’s claims.

The tribunal judges have now heard all the evidence and are expected to give their decision next month.