The Wardman Wire

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Regular readers of the Wardman Wire will know that I’ve been involved with others in a campaign to place a spotlight on the mismanagement and asset-stripping of the chain of 25 bookshops which used to go under the name of SPCK. See the SPCK SSG News and Information blog for more information about the overall campaign.

A community of campaigning bloggers, and a wider international network based mainly on Facebook and other social media sites, has had a significant role in this over a period of more than 2 years – gathering information, exposing a fraudulent bankruptcy attempt, keeping the Charity Commission on the case, and keeping the spotlight on the case. But this still has a long way to run – notably because there are still many small businesses who were simply never paid. The ex-SPCK staff will be having a well-deserved victory party, though.

The two Facebook groups are We Support Dave Walker (who was “Cease and Desisted” after 18 months of objective reporting), and A group for all those people who mourn the tragic demise of SPCK Bookshops, which still have a combined membership of well over 500 activists and supporters.

For today, I’m highlighting the huge credit due to the USDAW legal team and the ex-staff who kept on going for so long. This is the full USDAW Press Release. The “notes to editors” at the end have a good summary of the history of the aspects of this case dealt with by USDAW.

Breaking news is that the Employment Tribunal relating to staff of the former SPCK Bookshop Chain has been cancelled, as the Interim Manager has offered an Out of Court settlement, which is likely to be accepted.

I am told that the settlement is likely to be acceptable to USDAW, who have fought a year-long Industrial Tribunal claim against the multi-headed hydra of several organisations created by J Mark Brewer and his brother Philip on behalf of bullied, victimised, sacked and unpaid staff.

This is a direct result of the imposition of an Interim Manager by the Charity Commission, which in turn is a direct result of complaints submitted by campaigning bloggers and others committed to scrutinising the exploitation and mismanagement of the chain by the Brewer Brothers, detailing information that had been discovered over a period of months by a wide network. These complaints happened as far back as last August.

It is also a direct result of a campaign of accurate reporting, initially by Dave Walker, but then by dozens of blogs (including this site) which have discovered information, documented abuses, exposed lies (and probable perjury), and kept on going regardless.

I am hopeful that the fact that the charity is now controlled by the Charity Commission rather than the modern version of Shyster, Flywheel, and Shyster means that payments will be made of unpaid wages going back the best part of two years. Based on information I have picked up over the last months, there are quite substantial sums involved, well into six figures.

Special acknowledgements are due to the legal team at USDAW for dealing with a monstrously complicated case, and the staff who kept on fighting. It is also a victory for blog campaigners and fellow travellers who knitted it all together, especially Dave mentioned above and my colleague at SPCK/SSG News and Information, Phil Groom, and Unity at Ministry of Truth.

Several important aspects of the SPCK case – compensation to one significant group of staff for lost wages, and possibly bullying and victimisation – will have been resolved if this goes through, so we can have a big party. And some ex-staff can take a well-deserved holiday when the money comes through.

More about the SPCK/SSG case:

• Analysis of the Mark Brewer / bplaw.com Sanctions Motion and the Response.
• 20,000 page views a month for the SPCK News Blog.
• Adverts for Jobseekers and Vacancies
• An SSG Employment Tribunal case study will be published at lunchtime.

My weekly SPCK roundup should be out sometime on Saturday morning. This is just a summary.