Monday, April 15, 2019 - 10:34

Local Unite Regional Officer Victor Ochello is expected to retire at the end of May from his top local union post held since February 2012.

The UK Unite Executive Council it seems have decided to disregard opening the vacancy to any local potential candidate to take over from Ochello, deciding instead to hand this important local union position to Stuart Davies who was only appointed UK National Officer responsible for Unite Gibraltar only last year. Davies set to take over as Unite regional officer in Gibraltar when Ochello says his final goodbyes.

The decision by Unite HQ in London has been kept neatly under wraps until today of course when Panorama brought you the story.

Already, some Unite members who are already aware are complaining that it all smacks of double-standards by the ‘Unite hierarchy in the UK’ who appears to want to position their own UK presence firmly in the Gibraltar branch, at the expense of local unite member who may want to apply for the regional officers position:

As one disgruntled member told me “I’ve seen Union walkout’s and major disputes for less take place, so it’s rather ironic that unite in the UK play a colonial like card and not go out of its way to find a local regional officer to put in place, one who would be best suited to further the needs of local industrial relations”.