Company executives have warned that CBI faces an uncertain future after allegations of sexual harassment and a toxic culture led to the resignation of its CEO, Tony Dunker.
The business lobby group, which represents more than 700 major companies for fees of up to £50,000 a year, has ordered an internal investigation following allegations of sexual harassment linked to the 51-year-old Dunker, as well as reports of a toxic work environment.
He resigned in March after the CBI hired a law firm to investigate several complaints against him. Including a statement from an employee.
Dunker, who was fired immediately and will not receive severance pay, said he was “appalled” by the dismissal, but admitted that it “inadvertently made some colleagues uncomfortable.”
Both the government and the opposition severed ties with the group after T.he guards. Mr. Dunker is not the subject of these individual complaints, and many of the more serious allegations date back to Mr. Dunker’s time as CEO.
But the distance exacerbated already serious reputational problems for the CBI, as members began to worry about corporate culture and the state of their position in relations with ministers.
Manager tells I: “Bleeding will continue outside of CBI for years to come. They messed up a lot of things, messed up relations with the government and clearly failed in terms of corporate culture, given what has come out over the past few years. Defender.
“We left three or four years ago because they were deaf to a lot of political issues – it will be even harder for them to become relevant again.”
Another said the appointment of Mr Dunker fell short of the CBI’s original goal of detoxifying the post-Brexit lobbying group.
Mr Dunker’s appointment was partly an attempt to clean up after a turbulent period in government. The lobbying group was denied access to meetings with cabinet ministers in 2020 after criticizing the government’s strategy. Weekly meetings were disrupted and the government began to openly criticize the group.
Relations with the Labor Party are also strained, with senior sources saying they are still suspicious of the organization after the CBI said the Labor Party’s re-nationalization policy would cost £196bn to go public.
In a statement yesterday, the CBI said the allegations made in its investigation were “destructive” and said it apologized to “the victims of this organizational failure, including those affected by the revulsion we all feel” when they heard their stories.
Three other CBI employees have also been suspended “pending further investigation of a number of pending allegations,” the group said in a statement.
Dunker, who was replaced by former CBI chief economist Rain Newton-Smith, said: “I acknowledge that the CBI has suffered a lot of publicity following the exposure of the horrific events that preceded my tenure.
“I was shocked when I first heard about this last week. However, I was shocked to learn this morning that I was fired from the CBI and not asked to state my point of view as originally confirmed.
“Many of the accusations against me are perverted, but I admit that I unintentionally made some colleagues feel uncomfortable and I am truly sorry. I wish my former CBI colleagues the best of luck.”
The results of the investigation against him remain unpublished.
Source: I News
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