Swansea Uni: Dismissals linked to £200m wellness village 'fair'

The case centred around the proposed Life Science and Wellness Village in Llanelli.

Two academics who failed to declare their financial interests in a £200m development were fairly dismissed, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Swansea University acted fairly when it sacked Prof Marc Clement and Steven Poole in 2019 for gross misconduct.

The case was centred around the proposed Life Science and Wellness Village in Llanelli.

Both had failed to declare personal equity stakes in the project.

The former dean of Swansea's management school, Prof Clement, and business school colleague Mr Poole were sacked following a protracted independent disciplinary hearing that began the previous year, following their suspensions, they both also lost appeals.

Under the ordinances of the university, all staff have to declare equity stakes or external rules.

Professor Clement only made a declaration of interest referring to 'emergent corporate structures' and Mr Poole made a declaration in January 2018

The tribunal rejected claims that they had been unfairly dismissed and Judge Jenkins said the "dismissals of the two claimants had been fair, and that their claims of unfair dismissal should be dismissed".

He added that "there was nothing to indicate there had been any procedural deficiencies in the way the university had managed the disciplinary processes in relation to the two claimants".

During the tribunal Prof Clement had claimed he had revealed the proposed equity stakes to the university's then chair of council, Sir Roger Jones.

However, Judge Jenkins said: "There was nothing to indicate Prof Clement had disclosed any details on how he individually might benefit from the project.

"Prof Clement was of significantly greater seniority (to Mr Poole), and therefore the imposition of the sanction of summary dismissal fell even more squarely within the range of reasonable responses in his case."

On Mr Poole, he said while not in the upper echelons of the university's management structure, he was nevertheless a relatively senior employee who managed several other employees.

The tribunal heard that Prof Clement stood to have an 24% stake in the wellness village, while claiming it was a purely an altruistic move with shares intended to be held in trust with profits channelled from wellness projects to fund good causes and research into life sciences in his home town of Llanelli and the wider region.

Prof Richard B Davies was sacked as vice-chancellor of Swansea University in 2019

The university's former vice-chancellor Prof Richard B Davies, was also sacked for misconduct, but his dismissal was not related to any proposed equity stakes in the wellness village project.

Prof Davies is set to take his case to another tribunal.

It is not known whether Swansea University will lodge a claim for its legal costs against the sacked employees.

In a statement the university said it welcomed the judgement and said: "Throughout this process, the university has at all times acted in line with its ordinances, with the individuals only having been dismissed following a thorough, independent disciplinary process."

The wellness village project, which was seeking £40m in backing from the City Deal for the Swansea Bay City Region was a joint venture between the university, Carmarthenshire County Council and development partner in a company called Sterling Heath.

Following the suspensions, the project was shelved, and a new, completely separate wellness village project, Pentre Awel, has since been developed.