Two FTSE 100 insurers and a top pension scheme quit the CBI on Friday after the employers’ organisation was rocked by a second allegation of rape, casting its future into doubt.
The insurers Aviva and Phoenix and the £20bn pension scheme the People’s Partnership all said they were cancelling their memberships after the latest allegations were published by The Guardian.
“In light of the very serious allegations made, and the CBI’s handling of the process and response, we believe the CBI is no longer able to fulfil its core function — to be a representative voice of business in the UK,” Aviva said.
“We have therefore regrettably terminated our membership with immediate effect.”
The People’s Partnership, which has 6mn members, said: “Following the very serious allegations made, we have made the decision that we can no longer remain members of the CBI.”
Vitality, the smaller UK health insurer, has also quit the body. “We don’t believe that they have the credibility to represent business at this point,” Neville Koopowitz, chief executive, told the FT.
In a further blow, both Shell and Asda announced they were pausing all engagements with the CBI, while a senior executive at one of the FTSE’s largest 20 companies said it would stop paying its membership dues.
Ann Francke, the chief executive of the Chartered Management Institute, a professional body that encourages better management practices, said the pattern of allegations and management failures now left the CBI facing an “absolutely existential crisis”.
The departures came after a woman alleged that she was raped while working for the CBI, according to the Guardian, the second person to make an accusation of rape.
The allegation, which the CBI has now passed to the police, is the latest in a series of claims about the workplace culture, including sexual harassment, drug-taking and bullying that have rocked the UK employers’ organisation in recent weeks.
The CBI said on Thursday that it had been passed information about a serious crime and was now “liaising closely” with the police.
The Guardian reported that the new case of rape had taken place at one of the CBI’s overseas offices, but declined to specify the date of the incident or the country where it took place in order to protect the alleged victim’s identity.
The City of London Police is already investigating an allegation of rape at a 2019 CBI staff party on a boat on the Thames, alongside a series of other allegations of misconduct made by a dozen people who have worked at the organisation.
Fox Williams, the law firm, is conducting an independent investigation into those allegations, which have led to the suspension of three staff. The CBI has said it expects to publish the conclusions from that report early next week.
Barclays, HSBC, NatWest, TSB, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Macquarie Group and Bank of Ireland have also paused activities with the CBI pending the outcome of the investigations.
The British Insurance Brokers’ Association, a trade body, informed the CBI last week that it was cancelling its membership due to the allegations.
Separately, the CBI sacked its former director-general Tony Danker this month for previous workplace misconduct.
Danker said this week that he had been made the “fall guy” for the much more serious allegations.
The Guardian report included graphic details of the second alleged rape, which the woman said took place at the hands of two men after a night of heavy drinking.
The woman said she had no recollection of the rape itself, but had described in detail the physical signs that led her to believe she was raped and was later presented in the office with an explicit photograph related to the incident.
The woman told the Guardian that she blamed the CBI for allowing an atmosphere to be created in which such incidents could take place, and for failing to provide adequate human resources support.
CBI president Brian McBride said the allegations reported in the Guardian were “abhorrent” and that the CBI had not been previously aware of them. “It is vital that they are thoroughly investigated now and we are liaising closely with the police to help ensure any perpetrators are brought to justice,” he added.
The Guardian also reported a 2018 case in which a female employee was stalked by a male colleague. An internal CBI investigation made a finding of harassment, but the incident was not taken to the police.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, who was director-general of the CBI at the time, told the Guardian she was not made aware of the complaint, describing the decision not to bring it to her attention as “appalling”.
She added: “Any woman facing shocking abuse of this kind deserves immediate care, protection and the full support of her employer and the law.”
Additional reporting: Judith Evans, David Sheppard, Laura Onita, Owen Walker, Oliver Barnes.
