The CBI president has described as “selective” the first public comments of ousted director-general Tony Danker, who claimed on Wednesday that he was made the “fall guy” for the wide-ranging scandal at the employers’ organisation.
Danker told the BBC his reputation had been “totally destroyed” because his name had appeared alongside a set of allegations, including rape, that did not involve him.
Danker said the allegations directed at him were: viewing the private Instagram accounts of CBI staff; inviting selected staff to a karaoke night; sending social messages on work messaging platforms, asking employees to share pictures of their babies and dogs; and taking junior staff to breakfasts, lunches or one-on-one meetings.
Responding on the BBC’s Today programme, CBI president Brian McBride characterised Danker’s description as “selective”. He said the reasons for the former director-general’s dismissal had been set out in a letter to Danker: “There’s more in that letter than we just talked about.”
But McBride said the CBI would not be releasing the report that led to Danker’s sacking, saying it was a “private legal matter”.
“The board lost its trust and confidence in his ability to lead the organisation and represent the CBI in public. If any employee of any company in the UK feels they’ve been unfairly dismissed they can go to an employment tribunal or they can take you to High Court,” he said.
Danker maintained he had been fired for actions that only a few weeks earlier had not merited disciplinary action, adding that he was considering legal action but did not want to sue.
“It’s so clear, I’ve been made the fall guy,” he said. “Not only did they throw me under the bus, they reversed the bus back over me.”
“I want to apologise to anyone at the CBI that I made uncomfortable — that’s on me. But it was not misconduct, it was not all the terrible things that have since emerged.”
A woman who alleges she received unwanted attention from Danker while working at the CBI told the Financial Times she was “extremely disappointed” by his remarks.
“He’s claiming to be the victim of CBI HR [Human Resources] processes that actually let down the women on the receiving end of his unwanted attention, not him,” she said. “To pit his behaviour [against] the atrocious behaviour of others in order to shield himself is brazen cowardice.”
Another female former CBI staffer, who has criticised the organisation’s culture as toxic and is in close contact with those affected, said Danker’s decision to go public had been selfish.
“The women he’s ‘made uncomfortable’ have been through a traumatic time reliving their experiences over and over again [during] the past weeks, and he shows them no regard at all by grabbing the public microphone like this and putting his own self-interest first,” she added.
Danker declined to comment.
The CBI is battling to save its reputation after weeks of damaging headlines that have led to government ministers and senior opposition Labour party politicians halting interactions with the lobby group.
In a statement last week it said Danker’s conduct “fell short of that expected of the Director General”.
Three other CBI staff members have been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into misconduct allegations by law firm Fox Williams, which include a rape at a 2019 staff party, before Danker took over as boss of the organisation in November 2020.
McBride told the Financial Times last Friday that Danker had been the subject of a formal complaint in January that was resolved, but within four days a second complaint had emerged. Danker stepped back on March 6 and was fired less than a month later, following an investigation by Fox Williams.
McBride said the decision to sack Danker had been taken unanimously by the board, which felt it was on “very firm” legal ground.
This article has been updated to remove a quote wrongly attributed to Brian McBride
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