Money to burn

A Devon fireman subjected to a campaign of harassment by a colleague has been awarded an estimated £100,000 in compensation. There were some 16 complaints made against John Owers - complaints such as failing to attend a colleagues leaving do and the heinous crime of "taking a holiday in August". The swine.

The complaints made against John Owers, a controller with Devon Fire and Rescue Service, over a period of three years led to him being banned from his own control room, even though investigations found that he had done nothing wrong.

Remarkably, the colleague who wasted all this time and money was not disciplined. Why? Because the colleague was a woman.

Last year an employment tribunal upheld Mr Owers’s claim that he had been the victim of sexual discrimination. It was told that Devon fire brigade had treated him as the wrongdoer even though Miss Kelly’s complaints were consistently found to be spurious.

Miss Kelly, 37, eventually left her job and now lives abroad. The tribunal was told that when Mr Owers complained about the false accusations, he was ignored. A personnel officer told him: “If you had been a woman the whole thing would have been handled differently.”

Very true. Had it been the other way around there is no doubt the man would have been hounded from his job. Oh, hang on ..... he was! So, it doesn't matter whether the man is the victim or the victimiser - either way he gets crapped on by his bosses.

Don't forget, whatever happens in these cases, it's you and I - the taxpayer - who ends up paying for all this. Just think of all that money that could have been put to use improving schools or health care gone to waste because some dopey bird didn't like her male colleague taking holidays in August.