Swansea University acted fairly in dismissing two academics for gross misconduct after they failed to declare personal equity stakes in the proposed £200m Life Sciences and Wellness Village project in Carmarthenshire, an employment tribunal has ruled.
After a tribunal in Cardiff lasting more than two weeks, for which there was an evidence bundle running to some 13,000 pages, Judge Stephen Jenkins said the university were justified in sacking the former dean of its management school, Prof Marc Clement and colleague, Steven Poole, in 2019, following a protracted independent disciplinary hearing that began the previous year following their suspensions They both then subsequently lost appeals.
They were dismissed for gross misconduct alongside the university’s former vice-chancellor Richard B Davies, who plans to bring his own employment tribunal case. Prof Davies' dismissal was not related to any proposed equity stakes in the wellness village project. Under the ordinances of the university all staff have to declare equity stakes or external roles.
