Horizon Inquiry Day One: CWU demands ‘action not words’

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.cwu.org/news/horizon-inquir ... not-words/

Andy Furey urges Nick Read to ‘make change happen – don’t just talk about it’ after Post Office CEO writes lengthy essay pledging to ‘right the wrongs’ exposed during this major miscarriage of justice…

“It’s good to hear these promises, admissions and apologies from Mr Read – but actions speak louder than words,” was the reaction of CWU assistant secretary Andy Furey to the statement released earlier today.

As Sir Wyn Williams’s long-awaited Horizon Inquiry got under way, with wrongly prosecuted postmasters preparing to submit their evidence and others set to be questioned about their respective roles in the affair, the leader of the Post Office wrote an ‘oped’ (opinion editorial) in which he apologised profusely on behalf of the organisation and made a series of commitments, as well as claims.

“Reading through his article today, I was pleased to see the sense of contrition and the realisation that the Post Office has badly wronged so many innocent people,” Andy told CWU News.

“But like many others, I was left with the feeling that, if he really means what he says – and we all hope that he does – then what we really need to see is some serious action to back up these fine words.

“For example, if he wants to ‘ensure that all compensation is full, fair and final for those who have already suffered too much’ then don’t just talk about the interim payments made to the 72 former Postmasters who have had their convictions quashed, let’s highlight the plight of the other 500-plus litigants who received less than £20,000 each – an amount which goes nowhere near to meeting the lost earnings and loss of livelihoods that these people have suffered.

“Let’s work together – the CWU and the Post Office, along with the JFSA – to demand that the Government fully funds their claims and that these monies are not offset against the Post Office operation as a whole.”

Mr Read’s claim that the Post Office is ‘resetting our relationship with our postmasters, upon whom we all depend’ by having ‘two Non-Executive Director postmasters, elected by other postmasters, on the Post Office Board’ was heavily critiqued by the CWU as well, with our national postmaster branch secretary Mark Baker pointing out that “the candidate selection was all done by a Post Office appointed panel and candidates whom they didn’t want with a CWU background or indeed membership – such as myself – were excluded from the ballot.

“It ill-behoves the Post Office to claim that they’re advancing postmaster representation, when they themselves are choosing which candidates are allowed to stand for election,” Mark continued.

“What postmasters really need is a truly independent representative body, a trade union, to fight for their interests. So why will the Post Office not grant full recognition to the CWU – which already has recognition for all other Post Office functions and grades – for postmasters as well?”

Today’s commencement of the Inquiry sparked a great deal of interest across the national press and media and the CWU is determined to continue the fight for justice, recompense and real reform for the future.

Andy Furey and Mark Baker have both been asked by Sir Wyn to give evidence to the Inquiry and they are “very much looking forward” to doing so, adding that “this will be a good opportunity to make these key points directly and publicly and, hopefully, to ensure that the issue of and need for independent representation is fully highlighted.”

Andy concluded: “If people want to follow these proceedings, there is a live-link and people can follow the developments as the various parties give their evidence to the investigation.

“I am confident Sir Wyn Williams will get to the bottom of this travesty and justice will prevail. This will of course mean full accountability for those senior Post Office directors who have caused so much misery for so many for so long.”

[borisblank]

It will be interesting to hear the CWU give a detailed account of the actual support they gave to their members during the early days of the Horizon scandal. My understanding from colleagues directly affected was that the support was lacking to say the least.

The CWU's stance appears to now be the exact opposite of its previous position at the time.........!

[TrueBlueTerrier]

It will be interesting to hear the CWU give a detailed account of the actual support they gave to their members during the early days of the Horizon scandal. My understanding from colleagues directly affected was that the support was lacking to say the least.

The CWU's stance appears to now be the exact opposite of its previous position at the time.........!

As I understand it the CWU did not start accepting Post Masters into the Union, until the NFSP became somewhat embroiled in the Horizon scandal, and did not provide the support their members thought should be offered.

[borisblank]

Indeed, but there were Horizon issues in the Crown Offices as well.

[borisblank]

Watching Tony Kearns on the Horizon Inquiry.

Why is he there??? He has zero relevant information for the inquiry. He has no idea of the number of CWU members sacked because of Horizon, no idea if there were even any cases that the CWU were involved in supporting staff accused of balancing errors in Horizon and admitted that there were no records of any sort about members being involved in Horizon issues.

This is beyond pathetic. He states that any members request gor support over a about Horizon issue would have been dealt with locally and he would only have know at a national level if the local rep reported it! The biggest scandal in the history of the Post Office and the local reps didn't report any instances and at national level nobody could be bothered to find out retrospectively whether there had been any!

The CWU simply hasn't bothered to report/record nor more recently bothered to check whether any member has been ever impacted never mind sacked because of Horizon issues. What a joke! Why haven't they even attempted to pull together some figures?

I personally know of Horizon issues at a Crown Office reported to the local CWU Rep, who had to be forced to represent Crown staff and simply went through the motions of representing them. He disliked the Crown staff and admitted he didn't care if they were sacked and it was all a complete waste of his time! No wonder there aren't any records, he didn't care enough and that's unlikely to be an isolated case.

Kearns appearance and evidence makes the CWU look like a complete waste of time when it comes to having represented (or not as the case may be) its members impacted by Horizon......which from my experience appears to be entirely accurate.

He admitted that the CWU does not represent members accussed of theft which was exactly what was happening when Horizon balances were being investigated by the PO.

Looks more and more that the reality is that the CWU failed to support its members if Horizon was involved. It comes across that the CWU sat back and did nothing then and have done nothing since, just what are the CWU being paid for and why have they not went backed and looked to see if members were illegally found guilty of offences they rid not commit?

Glad i'm retired out of the PO now, I no longer have to listen to the BS the local CWU rep spouted about protecting members and their complete failure to properly address Horizon related reprimands, warnings, sackings and potential prosecutions that were taken against THEIR OWN MEMBERS!!

I hope these members now sue the CWU for their failure to be supported when they most needed it.