Editorial - No relief for errant employers

The key to good journalism is getting the stories that no one else carries. So while most of the other newspapers carried stories of how good Computacenter's results were - which is no mean feat - PC Dealer felt very proud to carry an article about the fact that more former senior account managers at the reseller were pursuing legal action through the courts.

While this is good investigative journalism to a tee, it is sad that this kind of thing goes on in our industry and that this type of story makes front page news. After all, look at how the newspapers had an absolute field day with printing President Clinton's heartfelt apology to his wife, daughter and the US public for lying.

Ironically, the US economy is on a high as it is in the black for the first time since the presidency of Roosevelt, but at the same time, the US chief executive has lied to everyone and on a number of occasions.

With Computacenter's massive dominance in the market, it seems inevitable that there will be one or two industrial tribunal cases, after all the reseller does employ rather a lot of people and you can't keep everyone happy all the time. It is perhaps more interesting to note the timing of these court actions.

While Computacenter would argue that the former employees are trying to cash in the reseller's share flotation, others are suggesting that they have been spurred on by the success of Caroline Olds' case. As first revealed in PC Dealer in July 1997, Caroline first began her course of action against the reseller, alleging unfair dismissal based on sexual discrimination - a claim she has since proved although the damages have not yet been awarded.

But to be perfectly honest, the whole idea of staff having to sue their employers because they believe they have grievances against the way they have been treated should not have to come about at all. The UK law stipulating that staff have no employee rights unless they have been employed at a company for more than two years, is outdated and downright insulting.

Surely any amount of time spent with a company constitutes that it is the responsibility of that firm to ensure the best welfare for its employees?

After all, they are the ones that are responsible for the good sales figures.

The developments of the court actions will make interesting reading, whatever the outcome is. It is the nature of our personalities that we like to read about other people's so-called triumphs against establishments.

PC Dealer will be tracking this and will let you know all the latest developments.

Of course, what is happening at Computacenter is not just restricted to that particular reseller - it happens throughout the entire industry with most companies. But there is no excuse for companies treating their staff badly.

Unfortunately, the bigger and more successful the company, the more prone it is to staffing problems.

But there is still too much of the old boy network going on. If the IT industry is suffering from severe skills shortages, then we need to show the outside world that we do look after our staff and are keen to encourage non-traditional computer-literate people to take a look at the huge opportunities in reselling IT equipment.