Unfair dismissal claim forces closure of arts charity

Governance | Celina Ribeiro | 10 Mar 2010

A charity which assists people with limited mobility in getting access to London art spaces is being forced to close after exhausting its funds fighting an unfair dismissal case.

The charity, Access to Art, will be shut down at the end of this month and its two full-time employees will be out of a job as a result of an ongoing dispute with a former employee.

Jane Turner, director of Access to Art, said: “We’re closing because one of our employees is filing a claim for unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal and the charity has used all its funds in defending it.

“It’s incredibly sad and our members are in bits,” she said.

The charity works with around 200 disabled and older people who otherwise would have difficulty in accessing art galleries and spaces in London. Turner said there is no alternative service for the beneficiaries.

Turner added that data protection regulations mean that the charity will have to destroy information about all its members “so we can’t even bring it back to life at another time”.

According to the latest Charity Commission records, Access to Art had an annual income of just over £100,000 for the year ending 31 March 2009.

Turner declined to expand on the details of the unfair dismissal case as it is still ongoing.

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.