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A top Scrutineer is calling for the government to carry out "more thorough background checks on prospective employees" after it emerged that its former HR boss was involved in a case with a UK employment tribunal which concluded he had doctored an employee's dismissal letter prior to his move to Jersey.
The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham was recently ordered to pay a record £4.6 million in compensation and damages to a former employee who suffered PTSD after working with the bereaved families of the Grenfell Tower fire.
The council was found guilty of disability discrimination and harassment towards Rachael Wright-Turner after she was sacked from her £125,000-a-year role in 2018.
The Government of Jersey's former Chief People and Transformation Officer Mark Grimley was embroiled in the six-year legal battle between the London Borough council and former employee as he was the authority's HR Director during the time of Ms Wright-Turner's employment.
Ms Wright-Turner's subsequent £4.6 million payout is believed to be the highest-ever such award against a public body.
Pictured: Mark Grimley, the Government of Jersey's former Chief People and Transformation Officer, was HR Director during the time when the London council was found guilty of disability discrimination and harassment towards Rachael Wright-Turner.
The employment tribunal's ruling described Mr Grimley as "an unreliable witness" who "gave evidence under oath which [he] knew to be untrue".
He was also found to have played a part in the doctoring of Ms Wright-Turner's dismissal letter to make it appear to have been signed before she launched a grievance against the council, it was concluded.
It still remains unclear whether the Government of Jersey knew about the case against Mr Grimley prior to his employment in the island in 2019, despite repeated enquiries from Express.
Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Scrutiny Panel, Deputy Inna Gardiner said: "We must conduct more thorough background check on prospective employees.
"It should be done from initial engagement and during work of the Appointment Commissioner, to the final stage of finalising contracts."
She added that the Public Accounts Committee Scrutiny Panel is planning to undertake work on recruitment practices, and the vetting process for prospective employees is "likely to be raised during the review".
Pictured: Deputy Inna Gardiner, Chair of the Public Accounts Committee Scrutiny Panel, called for "more thorough background check on prospective employees".
Following the incident with Ms Wright-Turner in 2018, Mr Grimley continued to work for the London borough until June 2019 when he moved to Jersey – hired as Group Director of People and Corporate Services under former Government CEO Charlie Parker.
On Monday morning, Express asked the Government to confirm whether they were aware of the employment tribunal case involving Mr Grimley ahead of his employment in 2019, or if it emerged later during his time in post. No response has been received at the time of writing.
Mr Grimley's title changed to Chief People and Transformation Officer during the creation of the Government's ‘Cabinet Office’, but his role remained essentially the same.
A key element of that was overseeing the transformation of the culture of the service in the wake of reports of widespread bullying and harassment throughout the civil service, as well as low morale.
In an interview with a UK trade publication in 2022, Mr Grimley was described as being invested in working to build trust in Government as an employer "for the next two to four years at least".
However, Mr Grimley resigned from his role at the Government of Jersey for what were described by Government as "personal reasons" in November last year.
At the time, the Government refused to answer questions about the circumstances surrounding his abrupt departure, and whether he had received an exit payment.
Express asked the Government to confirm:
The Government said that they wouldn't comment on individual employment matters.
They instead provided the following statement, signed off by then-Vice-Chair of the States Employment Board, Andy Jehan, who expressed the board's "gratitude" for Mr Grimley's "support, advice and guidance" and said they "wish him well in his future endeavours".
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