Unite created phoney job to prevent challenge to leaders, says whistleblower

Union gave a Heathrow baggage handler a 'ghost post' and let him keep his first job, according to claim

- Jon Ungoed- Thomas & Jonathan Lewis

In the early summer of 2023, a baggage handler at Heathrow airport received a welcome job offer: a wellpaid role with Unite, one of Britain's most powerful unions.

The job had one particular perk: he could also keep his existing full-time job as ground staff for a major airline.

It is claimed he has never stepped foot into Unite head office in central London, is unknown to his supposed colleagues and may not have carried out any work. He has been described as a "ghost worker".

The baggage handler withdrew from running for election on Unite's executive council, its governing body, around the same time he was offered the role. A whistleblower claims a phoney job may have been offered to him as an incentive to withdraw, thereby ensuring council members backing the existing union leadership were not at risk of being displaced.

Unite confirmed this weekend it had launched an investigation into the allegations, but said claims of election rigging were "categorically false". The baggage handler, who is no longer on the union payroll, also denies any wrongdoing.

Eddie Cassidy, a member of Unite's executive council, said: "If what has been alleged in this whistleblower letter is true, then there are elements that I feel have to be investigated by the police." It is an offence to give or receive bribes, with penalties of up to 10 years' imprisonment or unlimited fines.

The allegations of possible illicit payments and election tampering at Unite have been passed to The Observer at the same time as the union, one of the Labour party's biggest donors, descends into civil war.

It has failed to publish its accounts since 2020, squandered tens of millions of pounds during Len McCluskey's leadership on an illthought out hotel and conference centre in Birmingham, and is being challenged over its recent spending, including confidential payouts to settle a strike on its own doorstep.