CBI fires number of people after allegations of sexual misconduct

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The Confederation of British Industry has fired “a number of people” after a series of allegations of sexual misconduct at the pressure group under pressure.

Its chairman, Brian McBride, said the board and senior executives felt “a collective sense of shame” for letting the company group’s staff down.

“In retrospect, we now know we were complacent. And we made mistakes in the way we organized the business, which had terrible consequences,” Mr McBride said.

He said a number of other staff had been fired for failing to meet the high standards expected of them. This follows the sacking of former CBI chief executive Tony Danker two weeks ago.

It also follows reports from the Guardian newspaper, which had spoken to more than a dozen women who claimed they had been sexually harassed while working at the CBI.

Two of these women say they were raped.

Mr McBride said the group had failed to screen out “culturally toxic people” when hiring.

The group also failed to act properly when allegations were made internally against these people, he said.

“We tried to find a solution in the cases of sexual harassment when we should have removed these offenders from our company.

“In retrospect, this last point was our most serious mistake, which led to women’s reluctance to formalize complaints.

“It has allowed that very small minority of staff with regressive – and in some cases abhorrent – ​​attitudes towards their female colleagues to feel more assured of their behavior and safer not to be detected.

“And it led victims of harassment or violence to believe that their only option was to report their experiences to a newspaper.”

Mr McBride added that board members and senior executives of the group believed the CBI had a strong corporate culture and had experienced difficult emotions since the disclosures were published.

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“The greatest of these emotions is a collective sense of shame, at having failed so badly the enthusiastic, ambitious and passionate people who have come to work at CBI.

“They rightly expected to be able to do it in a safe environment, and we disappointed them.”

He also told the members that the band communicated poorly with them after the allegations became public.

“In doing so, commentators concluded that the organization was ruthless and toxic, and that serious allegations of rape had been covered up, when in fact they were never brought to the attention of senior management or the board. directors of the CBI until revealed by The Guardian,” Mr McBride said.

The body suspended its membership policy and activities last Friday after dozens of members said they were quitting or suspending interactions with the CBI.

It came after the Guardian published the second rape allegation on Friday.

Mr McBride said the group would try to win back the members’ trust.

“If it’s possible, I just don’t know. It is, of course, up to each of you to decide,” he said.

The CBI has in the past been a powerful voice for business across the UK and claims to represent the interests of around 190,000 businesses.

The majority of them are not direct members, but rather members of professional bodies which are themselves members of the CBI.

Much of the CBI’s role in the past has been to advocate on behalf of its members to ministers, officials and opposition MPs.

But on Monday, Chancellor Jeremy Hunt questioned the value of liaising with the CBI after it lost such a large proportion of its members.

Speaking to reporters, Mr Hunt said it was ‘incredibly important’ to engage with a body that represents UK businesses.

But he added: “There is no point engaging with the CBI when their own members have abandoned them en masse.

“So we want to engage with an organization that champions business. Having someone to talk to on behalf of UK business is extremely important to me when setting budgets.

The CBI has already suspended most of its activities and will try to regroup before a meeting of members in June.

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