Seven women have reportedly filed sexual harassment accusations against a rail union leader who has threatened to inflict a “summer of unrest” on Britons with the largest walkout since the General Strike.
Manuel Cortes, 55, the general secretary of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA), has been accused of sexual harassment by a former coworker Claire Laycock and will face an independent investigation.
He tried to kiss her at a company Christmas party in 2018, she claimed.
‘The general secretary came over to me, put his arm over my front, and asked to kiss me,’ Ms Laycock recalled.
Other colleagues took him away, but he returned and said, “I’ve been informed I’m not permitted to kiss you, do you want to go outside?”
He apologized at a mediation, she said, and blamed his actions on being intoxicated.
Mr Cortes was reportedly ‘following me around, gazing at me, and standing behind me too close’ during a Network Rail event in Glasgow, according to Ms Laycock.
‘HR was siding with Manuel and trying to get rid of me,’ she claimed.
Six more women came forward with claims about Mr Cortes after Ms Laycock spoke out.
Ms Laycock signed a non-disclosure agreement when she ultimately left TSSA, which the Union claimed prohibited her from repeating “allegations that were always fiercely denied and after a thorough inquiry were not upheld.”
John Page, the TSSA’s former assistant general secretary, said it was “time to root out chronic sexual harassment wherever it arises in our movement.”