Law

The Royal Society of Arts (RSA) unfairly dismissed an employee who spoke to the press about the organisation's refusal to recognise the staff trade union, an employment tribunal has found.

In a ruling delivered last month, which has been recently published, a judge found that Ruth Hannon had been unfairly dismissed by the RSA on grounds related to her trade union membership and was awarded her £6,959 in compensation.

Hannon was let go from her contract at RSA the day after she was quoted in The Obervor of accusing the RSA of hypocrisy because it had repeatedly refused to recognise the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB), which almost half its staff had joined.

In the article, the former Head of Policy and Participation at RSA noted that contrary to its stance within its organisation, RSA had publicly praised IWGB and given them an award for unionising workers in the gig economy.

Her termination letter, which ended her employment a week early, claimed Hannon had made “unauthorised, misleading and potentially damaging statements”. An active member of IWGB, Hannon brought a claim against RSA for detriment for engaging in trade union activity.

IWG members at the RSA staged strike action in September after rejecting a £1,000 pay rise for all staff.

The IWGB said: “Ruth’s legal victory has only strengthened our members’ resolve to win the ongoing pay dispute and has given them confidence and energy to transform the RSA into an organisation that respects and values their work.”

In a statement to Morning Star, an RSA spokesperson said: “We respect, but are extremely disappointed, by the tribunal’s judgment given the facts of this case and we reserve our right to appeal it."

The British Museum has announced the launch of a webpage that aims to help recover some of the almost 2,000 antiquities that have been stolen from its collection over the past seven years.

The webpage does not record the exact details of individual stolen items. Instead, it describes “the types of objects that are missing” and displays illustrative photographs, so that the public will be better able to identify whether they have come into contact with items, the Art Newspaper reported.

The museum has so far recovered 60 items. A further 300 have been identified and are “due to be returned imminently”, it said it a statement. It did not give details about the items that have been recovered and identified so far. 

Around 1,600 objects from the Greek and Roman departments have yet to be tracked down, including gold jewellery and gems made from semi-precious stones and glass dating from the 15th Century BC and later. 

The museum has not disclosed how many of these artefacts have been identified. Records of some objects are reported to have been incomplete.

A spokesperson for the Art Loss Register, which is assisting the museum with its recovery operation, told the Art Newspaper that the museum has chosen not to reveal the exact details of items that remain missing because it might “enable those who are holding such pieces and are acting in bad faith to avoid detection”.

This might result in artefacts being sold “through channels where fewer questions are asked” or even being destroyed, the spokesperson said.

Experts from Art Loss Register are part of an international panel of 14 leading specialists assembled by the museum to aid in the identification and recovery of the lost artefacts.

The museum is also working with the Metropolitan Police and is actively monitoring the art market, including online.