Gibraltar Corruption

Is there still Rule of Law in Gibraltar? Is there corruption in the local police?

Are employees' Human Rights protected? Is there a mafia in Gibraltar?

How corrupt are the Courts in Gibraltar? Is Entain a bad employer?

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Dear ************

I trust this email will find you well.

Re: Bart Van Thienen and others

I am the Chairman of the Dignity At Work Now, (DAWN) charity 175, set up in September 2005 to create awareness and prevent, as much as possible, bullying in the workplace.

One of the results of what we have done is the Employment (Bullying At Work) Act 2014 which celebrates its tenth anniversary this year. We also provide training for Gibraltar's Customs, the Royal Gibraltar Police, Borders and Coastguards Agency, Care Agency, private businesses etc., to name a few, about this issue of bullying at work.

Our research of 2007 showed that 31.1% of Gibraltar's working population at the time was affected by bullying in the workplace. This represented over 5,000 employees. Bullying at work clearly is a serious issue that needs further highlighting and prevention.

It is DAWN’s understanding, and somewhat unexpected, that there are very few judgments available which analyse the interpretation of the said Act. One would have expected many more seeing the high number of employees affected and the number of years passed since it became Law. This can possibly be explained by the local Employment Tribunal's set up, which may need some refining, as Mr Van Thienen's case shows.

I am not a lawyer myself and my legal background is limited. DAWN limits itself to give people a listening ear and tries to help them to cope with the negative effects of bullying at work as well as some more hands on advice. This is how I met Mr Van Thienen during his last days at work, shortly before he was dismissed. I have continued to closely follow up this case, among many others, although I do not have in depth knowledge of the cases, this is not DAWN's role. I have been supporting Mr Van Thienen for over six years in his struggle to find justice for what appears is a very simple case. I find Mr Van Thienen a reliable person who suffers greatly because of the apparent injustices he keeps encountering. He has been diagnosed with mental illness, allegedly caused by bullying at work and which, I have little doubt, has been made worse by the repeated delays in his court case and the way the relevant authorities felt fit to deal with it. What worries me much is that as a result of these delays, which are hard to explain, Mr Van Thienen's Government health cover expired and as a result the treatment of his mental illness was stopped. If I remember correctly, this happened about two years after Mr Van Thienen was dismissed and this compounded his distress.

I hear such stories and this worries me, at times to the level of astonishment, by hearing how people are treated by their employers before and after they file a claim in the Employment Tribunal. Let it be clear: abuses in the Employment Tribunal are possible. Delays, sometimes of several years, it appears are more the rule than the exception. This results in many giving up and abandoning their claims. Intimidation and aggressive approaches from lawyers representing employers contribute to this problem and unfortunately the Employment Tribunal Chairman or woman do not appear able to stop the apparent mishandlings. Mr Van Thienen has repeatedly mentioned to me what he calls the weaponization of his mental health against him in a war of attrition by the lawyers representing his ex-employer in a series of attempts, it appears, to make him give up his claim.

This is not how the Employment Tribunal is supposed to work, and I refer here to the Tribunal's overriding objective as stated in the Employment Tribunal (Constitution and Procedure) Rules 2016: “The parties and their representatives shall assist the Tribunal to further the overriding objective and in particular shall co-operate generally with each other and with the Tribunal.” Exactly the opposite is happening and I noticed that Tribunal Chairs feel reluctant to make decisions against their legal confraters. This puts employees at a disadvantage as many of them do not find a lawyer to represent them or they simply cannot afford a lawyer.

That this situation, over time, can lead to excesses is clear. One thing that has me very worried, is Mr Van Thienen's complaint of having been “tortured” during his cross examination over eighteen hours, spanning four days. It was known to the lawyers representing his ex-employer, and to the Tribunal Chairman, that Mr Van Thienen was suffering from mental illness. I find it incomprehensible that Mr Van Thienen was cross examined for so long for a very simple case. This must have left scars on Mr Van Thienen's soul and psyche. I know that Mr Van Thienen filed a formal complaint about this cruel treatment but, as far as I am aware, this has not been addressed.

Mr Van Thienen has recently informed me that he has approached you with his story, together with two other people. As DAWN’s Chairman, I can assure you that there are a few more in the same situation but who may be too scared to come forward. As you are a lawyer and an investigative journalist, I believe you to be the right person to look into this. I agree with Mr Van Thienen that exposing the abuses is the a way forward to stop this and change the system. Gibraltar's limited press and local Broadcaster depends heavily on the Government's financial support and funding and are therefore, I suspect, very reluctant to publish anything that the Government may disapprove of. For this reason, I believe that Mr Van Thienen did the right thing to contact you, an independent journalist in the UK. Mr Van Thienen is doing this because he feels he has no other options left and he wants to help others in the same situation, this is why DAWN supports him.

In my position as DAWN Chairman, I have heard numerous complaints, continuing to date, which I am not able to divulge in detail for data protection reasons. What is clear to me, is that there is a structural/ systemic problem which needs to be sorted out perhaps through exposure. I do hope that you can assist to make this happen.

Thank you in advance,

Francis Buttigieg
For DAWN

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