Final Report of the Morris Inquiry: The Case for Change

PEOPLE ISSUES
4.40 Ms LL, an individual who has taken an Employment Tribunal claim against the
MPS, was asked about her perception of the ETU being within DPS. She told us that
she thought it should be a totally separate unit “where you look at mediation first …
and do not automatically think ‘right the tribunal has been lodged, we are going to tribunal’.
We should say ‘Okay, what can we do to do with the issues’. When pressed about the
personal impression she had gained by having to contact a unit in DPS, she said
that “they were taking a defensive position immediately … I think it should be taken out …
and be independent.”
4.41 We think that such an impression is an almost inevitable consequence of the
location of the unit and reflects more than a modicum of reality when those in charge
refer to the Employment Tribunal process as one that is about risk management.
We are therefore reassured to have learnt from the Deputy Commissioner, when
he came to give evidence to the Inquiry, that the ETU is to be moved back into the
HR directorate.
4.42 The MBPA has argued for the ETU to be placed within the Diversity
directorate. For the reasons we outline below, we prefer to see it in the HR
directorate but we also consider that closer working between HR and Diversity
should be facilitated and this is the second structural issue which we wish to address.
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