The Fitzpatrick family shared their disgust with the First Minister and Leslie Evans over their failure to protect the 2 women who are whistleblowers like our sister DeeAnn. These two women and our sister have been let down by breaching their very own robust internal procedure established by the Permanent Secretary. Again internal failings by senior members of the human resources and top senior civil servants fail women who expose wrong doings within their workplace for the benefit of their mental wellbeing. We are happy that the Alex Salmond case exposed the means that they will go to achieve a victory. However this should not have been on the back of the serious allegations brought forward by the two women who so bravely came forward to report their sexual harassment suffered by them at the hands of Alex Salmond.

For many years we knew of the underhanded manoeuvres used by the HR team and management at Marine Scotland Compliance but because the two were working so closely together it was very difficult to prove. Then a private email exchange between a senior Marine Scotland Compliance manager and a senior member of the HR team to seek ways and means to dismiss DeeAnn was made public for all employees of the SG and DeeAnn’s colleagues with Marine Scotland Compliance to view.

DeeAnn’s management team shared vial and defamatory statements with HR and to discredit DeeAnn. They delved into her private life as a way and means to destroy her credibility and character. They suggested contacting the police anonymously to make false allegations against her so it would have impact on her mental wellbeing.

The senior civil servant Judith Mckinnon has her hands all over our sister's case but not for the same reason as the two women whom she has just failed. Members of DeeAnn's family wrote to Nicola Sturgeon, Leslie Evans and Judith Mckinnon on several occasions over the last year asking for them help to intervene to put a stop to the abuse and misogyny that our sister has being subjected for over a decade. Instead they seek to have our sister dismissed.
During our sister's employment tribunal the Scottish Government put up one witness, Judith MacKinnon, their head of people advice, who has over 25 years of experience in human resources. The employment tribunal judges did however highlight that the human resources department could have been more proactive in dealing with the matter of the hate mail that was received by our sister by launching an investigation, questioning staff and reminding staff that such matters might be regarded as being grounds for disciplinary action. Not only the judges on the tribunal panel but us as DeeAnn’s family found it astonishing that the Scottish Government’s disciplinary policy allows employees the right to remain silent and they need not answer questions that may incriminate them.
MacKinnon said those who dealt with DeeAnn’s complaints were too scared to appear because of the intense media interest and that she backed the decisions taken by her junior staff who found insufficient evidence to back up DeeAnn’s suspicions about the letters. What Mckinnon failed to report was that these two junior members of her HR team were colluding with members of DeeAnn's management team to find anything on DeeAnn to dismiss her for over a decade. Her HR team illegally accessed DeeAnn's emails between DeeAnn and her trade union representative at PCS. One member of the HR team goes on record to say that she would do it again even though the trade union has an agreement with the SG that emails between the trade union members of staff and the union are private and confidential. This is a serious breach and exposes all trade union members to have what they believe to be private and confidential conversations with their trade union representatives read by management and HR. A matter that has been raised but still has not been resolved.
Specific members of her junior HR staff colluded with management by being party to the campaign to dismiss DeeAnn that has been ongoing since 2010 after DeeAnn reported serious breaches of inappropriate behaviour within her workplace. They assisted the complainants in bringing forward complaints and then went on to be the deciding officers in the disciplinary cases brought against DeeAnn. They are noted for writing their emails and sharing confidential information with them to ensure success in the disciplinary cases. The mere fact that DeeAnn is a whistleblower was shared with the management team who quickly relayed this to DeeAnn's colleagues when there is a whistleblowing policy in place that states that whistleblowers will be protected.
When DeeAnn reported being spit on, restrained, gagged, threatened to be punched in the face by a male co-worker, being called a whore and a Canadian paedophile and many more serious incidents, a member of the HR team referred to her as a serial complainer. Members of her line management team were reported for conspiring against her and advising her co-workers to refrain from communicating or engaging with here. This is misogyny and abuse in the highest level.
DeeAnn has produced several documented cases of sexual harassment, racism, misogyny, physical harassment, bullying and victimisation to HR and senior civil servants. None of this has been investigated only the incident of being restrained because it made the newspapers and forced the SG’s hand to be seen acting. Many of the incidents that DeeAnn reported were as serious, if not more but they refuse to investigate.
Ms Evans spoke to both women in recent days about the Alex Salmond case and the government has said it will continue to offer them support. Ms Evans has never responded to one of our emails and nor has she spoken to DeeAnn about any of the complaints that have been submitted.
The 2 women’s complaints have not been withdrawn, meaning the government still has the option of pursuing a fresh investigation. DeeAnn’s complaints have never been withdrawn and they have never been looked into even though the 30 + complaints was requested by a senior member of the HR team. Will the SG now consider looking into DeeAnn’s complaints or will they once again be swept under the luscious red carpet?
You have 2 women who have been sexually harassed. You have one women who has been bullied, sexually and physically harassed and victimised for over a decade. These 3 women are whistleblowers. You have let these women down and now I ask that you allow DeeAnn to speak so that she can encourage others to come forward. Your system in place is not going to encourage people within the Scottish Government because you have just publicly let down all women who have been abused within their workplace. You are gagging victims of abuse and you are sweeping your mistakes under the carpet. How can you justify keeping someone in a job who physically manhandled a woman against her will while she was being taped to a chair and then he places tape over her mouth to stop her from making noise? To add humiliation to her injury he then has a picture taken of her in this situation. How can you justify keeping men in employment who threatened to punch a woman in the back of the head and the face with witnesses? Yet you will not let our sister stand up publicly and speak out for all women and men who are abused within their workplace to encourage them to come forward. It took great courage for the two women who spoke out about Alex Salmond and our sister to come forward. How can you seek to dismiss her without ever investigating the complaints lodged by her and her trade union representative over the years?
How can you sit in the room with all of the trade unions and make promises that you cannot keep? Let DeeAnn Speak!