SENIOR Carillion executive Gemma Lynch faced another day of cross-examination as the final witness at the industrial tribunal into allegations by GMB union members of harassment, and discrimination at Swindon’s Great Western Hospital.

Mrs Lynch, formerly facilities manager at the hospital, was asked by Oliver Segal QC for the GMB, if she accepted that “a culture of ‘gift-going for advantage’ had grown over time to become almost normal and excessive, which might explain why no-one had bothered to report it.

“Possibly,” she said.

She said she had not seen notes produced by her colleague Amanda Plumbridge listing some of the items allegedly requested of Goan staff by supervisors Christine Woods and Yvonne Bradley in what was described as ‘cult of bribery’.

They included an engraved necklace, alcohol, a duvet and substantial gift vouchers. It was claimed that these were ‘gifts from the heart’ but that Goan staff then ask for extra overtime.

She said that in disciplinary hearings some people described it like that but others said something quite different.

She was repeatedly asked why Goan staff members appeared to be treated differently to their white colleagues, especially after they joined the GMB union.

Of the five Goan staff members who admitted giving gifts, the four GMB members were immediately informed they faced disciplinary action after an initial interview, while another who was unsympathetic to the union was not.

This was because she had an outstanding grievance that had to be resolved, Mrs Lynch explained.

Meanwhile her colleague in Human Relations, Liz Keates, had said that bribery allegations against supervisors would not be upheld.

Mrs Lynch acknowledged that she was aware Ms Keates had been linked to Carillion’s involvement in the ‘blacklisting’ of trade union, health and safety and environmental activists.

Judge Livesey intervened to say that he and his panel did not know about and had received no evidence about blacklisting.

Pointing out that there had been a lot of publicity about it over the last 10 to 15 years, Mr Segal reminded Mrs Lynch that for years Carillion had refused to admit its involvement until the Information Commissioner had obtained documents from a third party.

She said she was aware of it but not the details.

Earlier Mrs Lynch had been questioned about the extent to which the company’s lawyers had influenced what had appeared in the report of an internal investigation into the allegations of bribery and discrimination and what influence they had over what should should or should not be disclosed to the tribunal.

“Did you know that Carillion Legal, a subsidiary of the main company, had joined forces with Clarkslegal LLP to ’establish an integrated service model for the conduct of employment law litigation’, to quote their website?” asked Mr Segal QC.

Mrs Lynch said she had not been aware of it.

Much of the day was spent in examination of the very different ways that two Carillon staff members had been treated - a white supervisor accused of dishonest behaviour and extortion and a Goan shop steward was accused of intimidating behaviour.

Both become ill during the course of disciplinary investigations, but both were keen to complete the process.

The supervisor, who became severely depressed, was eventually offered a £16,000 pay-off before the investigation was completed. The Goan GMB member faced 14 months of uncertainly without work before being offered voluntary redundancy.

“The contrast between the two is stark, isn’t it?” said Mr Segal. “One was treated much worse than the other.”

“It didn’t feel like that at the time” replied Mrs Lynch, admitting that in hindsight the latter case could have been handled more sensitively.

In another instance two white supervisors accused of racist remarks did not eventually face disciplinary action, although Mrs Lynch said such behaviour would amount to ‘potential gross misconduct’ worthy of a disciplinary hearing.

“I seem to recall that both were spoken to about inappropriate behaviour,” she explained. “We did some general training about behaviour and values. It’s not as if we did nothing.”

Over the last 16 days the tribunal has heard from 18 witnesses and examined some 3,700 pages of statements and supporting documents. Final submissions from Daniel Tatton-Brown for Carillion and Oliver Segal for the GMB will be made on Friday. The tribunal’s ruling is expected before Christmas.