A University of Cambridge “whistleblower” who raised concerns about bullying has won his case at employment tribunal, with vice-chancellor Deborah Prentice among the senior leaders criticised over their handling of the matter.
The bulk of complaints raised by astrophysics professor Wyn Evans were upheld in a judgment released on 10 August.
The academic had claimed he was victimised after raising concerns about the treatment of female staff members within the university’s Institute of Astronomy (IOA).
His tribunal, held in Bury St Edmunds earlier this year, heard how the university had taken “almost two years” to dismiss a grievance later raised against Evans and two other professors by the former IOA director, Richard McMahon.
Evans, who stood to be Cambridge chancellor in an election last year, was disadvantaged despite making “protected disclosures” under the Employment Rights Act, the tribunal concluded.
Although the judgment is careful to note the tribunal has neither the authority nor the ability to “conduct a public inquiry into alleged bullying or misogyny within the IOA”, it finds that Evans was convinced the concerns he was raising were indeed in the public interest.
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It finds that leadership within the IOA and the university failed to consistently demonstrate how they reached the decisions they did throughout the dispute, asserting that “pre-determined outcomes appeared to have been rubber-stamped”.
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