Here's a thread about the @EHRC, to explain the difference between state-funded human rights watchdog and independent human rights researchers. In 2015 I worked for a small research group called @CorpWatchUK - we had just 5 paid staff
I spent 6 months running a secret filming investigation of Britain's biggest immigration detention centre, Harmondworth, which had just been taken over by a FTSE 250 outsourcing giant called Mitie
Mitie had won a £180m per year contract from the Conservative government to run Harmondsworth. But Corporate Watch found conditions at Harmondsworth had acutally deterioated since Mitie took over the centre. Channel 4 News aired our story as a 10 min film channel4.com/news/harmondsw…
This was a big deal for a tiny research group. Shortly after the broadcast, we got an anonymous email, subject line WHISTLEBLOW. It was from a Mitie employee, but in a different part of their business empire - they were a care worker
The Mitie care worker sent us time sheets and pay slips showing they weren't getting paid for their travel time between care visits to peoples' homes. It meant they were earning less than the minimum wage. My fantastic colleague Richard Whittell began investigating
Richard is an accountancy expert (he even runs trainings if you want to do one), and he realised something big was up. It wasn't just one care worker being ripped off by Mitie, it was hundreds. The company was making potentially huge savings by illegally underpaying care workers
Richard began publishing stories about Mitie, and soon they were being sued by care workers corporatewatch.org/carer-sues-mih… Mitie began to make settlements, paying care workers thousands of pounds extra bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-…
Despite these worker exploitation and migrant detention centre scandals, the head of Mitie was given a peerage, and her Finance Director Suzanne Baxter... well she was put on the board of the Equality and Human Rights Commission @EHRC morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/watc…
And this is basically a snapshot of how power works in corrupt Britain. Ordinary people get shafted, those who uncover abuse work for small, sidelined organisations, and the people doing the shafting get honours and a seat at the top human rights watchdog in the land.
The @EHRC has 10 board members. Five of them have OBEs or CBEs. It's a joke equalityhumanrights.com/en/who-we-are/… So no, I'm not surprised it refuses to investigate the ruling party
If you want to support real human rights investigations in the UK, then support Richard's work and the rest of the team at Corporate Watch corporatewatch.org/support-us/fri…
