The co-ordinator of a charity project to help the elderly denied she was involved in a breakaway movement of volunteer street movements or that she knew what happened at their meetings.
Mrs Peggy O'Donnell, who claims she was sacked unfairly by the Dixon Community, a charity project for the elderly in the South Side of Glasgow, told a Glasgow industrial tribunal yesterday how the street wardens put her in a compromising position with their plans to break away on their own.
She said her volunteers felt rejected by the Dixon Community after losing their regular monthly meeting after 20 years because elderly dancers had been allocated the time. Mrs O'Donnell claimed a compromise giving them alternate months was unsuccessful.
She said she was asked to leave training meetings for street wardens once the business had been completed to allow them to discuss things among themselves.
Asked by solicitor Jack Quar, for the Dixon Community, why she allowed the breakaway movement to operate during training time on the premises of her employer, she said she didn't know what they were discussing or if it was anything to do with the breakaway.
She said the street wardens told her they were unhappy and felt isolated and ignored by the executive committee. ''They felt they were not valued for what they did.''
Asked for the reasons for these feelings, she said it came back to the choice between the elderly dancers and the street wardens at the meeting hall.
Mrs O'Donnell, from Cathcart, Glasgow, a former Evening Times Scotswoman of the Year, was accused of disloyalty and sacked for gross misconduct after almost 20 years with the Dixon Community. She wants the tribunal to order her reinstatement.
The hearing continues.
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