Open Letter To Tim Roache, GMB General Secretary

Dear Tim,

I write to you today regarding the judgment from the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) that was handed down on 17/03/2017.

As you will be aware my appeal was successful and I won a historic victory for GMB members against the union bureaucracy. I have been awarded a Declaration.

The GMB Union was found guilty of misinterpreting their own by-laws (by-law 13) and breaching section 47.1 of Trade Union and Labour Relations (TULR) (Consolidation) Act 1992.

Section 47.1 of TULR Act 1992 states,

"No member of the trade union shall be unreasonably excluded from standing as a candidate."

The GMB was found guilty of breaching this section of TULR Act 1992 as the union bureaucracy did unreasonably exclude me from standing as a candidate in the election for General Secretary.

We don't currently have the full written Judgment as that is expected by the end of this month.

However, EAT Judge Mr Justice Kerr, said

"The GMB acted unreasonably by misinterpretation of its own by laws (by-law 13) and breached section 47.1 of TULR Act of 1992".

The certification officers decision is set aside.

The appeal is well founded.

Paragraph 37 (the certification officer's reasoning) is unconvincing to the point of perversity".

In a damning judgment against the GMB unelected or barely elected leadership.

Therefore, after receiving legal advice from my barrister Nick De Marco from Blackstone Chambers, I write to you to formally request that you remove this disgraceful and clearly dishonest article from the GMB website and all social media sites and issue me with an apology.

In my opinion this statement was written and issued in an attempt to try and smear my good name.

It is now time following my appeal being successful that this outrageously dishonest statement be removed and an apology is given for the offence it has clearly caused.

In Solidarity

Keith Henderson

GMB Member

UPDATE: The GMB appears to have removed the statement from its website, however at time of writing we are not aware oif any apology being issued.