In 2014 I was working as the PA to the Club Secretary of Kilmarnock Football Club.
Here is a breakdown of my story so far:
2010
I was first employed by the Club under a Job Futures Employment Scheme by the local government.
I met the Club Secretary and she told me that she looking for an Administrative Assistant to start.
There was a group of approximately six ladies working there and they were absolutely lovely.
For the duration of my six months’ Contract the Club Secretary ignored me and she sat in another room.
There was not much for me to do and I wasted a lot of time surfing the internet.
The week before my contract was due to finish, The Club Secretary introduced us to her New Personal Assistant and I cried.
I had never been so humiliated in my entire life, and had to go back on the dole after six months.
Two months later, the Finance Manager asked me to come into the office for an interview to run the Killie Lotto.
They gave the job to a younger girl who worked in the Killie Shop.
I joined a group called the Springboard Hospitality Project and completed five hospitality courses, and worked for two months as a kitchen-hand at Dumfries House, and in the tearooms.
Prince Charles himself runs the Trust that handles the Management of Dumfries House, and he stayed there twice during the period I was employed.
I was fortunate enough to work alongside of Darren Blunden, Prince Charles' personal chef and his former butler, Michael Fawcett who now Manages the entire Dumfries House Estate.
2011
Four months later the Club Secretary of Kilmarnock Football Club asked me to come in the next day for a 9:15 am start.
The girl formerly appointed as her Personal Assistant had been fired.
I worked solidly as her Personal Assistant for the next two years, on a 'zero hours contract'.
Under a zero hours contract in the UK, your hours are not fixed and from one week to the next there is no security whatsoever. Many employees at the Football Club were employed in this manner with no written Contract of Employment.
I sat beside the Club Secretary in an office with the Club Chairman, Michael Johnston.
I worked hard, did everything I was told to do, and did not socialise with the other employees.
I did not engage in any gossip of any kind, and my behaviour during this period of time was exemplary.
The Club Secretary and I worked very well together as a team and she trusted me.
2012
Four ladies from the Administration office resigned and went elsewhere to work and they were replaced with younger women.
Six months later, my boss let me take on the responsibility of running the Killie Lotto, and increased my role to 16 hours per week which allowed me to apply for Working Tax Credits.
Three weeks later she tried to cut my hours again after employing two young people to join the Administration Office on a 'zero hours' contract.
I worked on the Meet & Greet at the hospitality desk in the Members Lounge on a Matchday and I loved it.
But after a few weeks the Club Secretary stripped me of most of my responsibilities and allocated tasks to the newer, younger staff members. Then she told me that she was employing another receptionist to come over from The Park Hotel.
Our Club had made it through to the Finals against Celtic in the Scottish Premier League in 2012.
I went along with my two little girls as Kenny Shiels, our Club Manager was at the helm and we celebrated.
The fans of the Club were unhappy about the Management of the Club, and lodged official complaints against the Club Chairman. We lost a lot of staff members at this time. The Club Manager, Kenny Shiels was dismissed.
I was extremely stressed by this situation as it is the best job that I have ever had in my life.
I was a single mother with two children depending upon me and I needed job security.
2013
One of the new ladies in the office was informing on her fellow staff members to the Club.
She made accusations against the staff members in the Gymnasium, the Stadium and the Shop.
The new Finance Manager and the Club Secretary were planning to get rid of all of the staff members they didn't like.
This included three people in the Cashroom who counted the takings from the gate on the matchday, the Stadium Manager, and one of the women from Housekeeping – many of whom had been there for more than 20 years.
The fans were not happy at all and there were riots and ugly scenes at every football match. The Chairman came under fire a lot, and the atmosphere in the Club went from bad to worse.
The new Finance Manager 'tattle tale' found my personal blog on the internet and reported this to my boss.
I was cautioned as a result and told to remove all references to the workplace.
My boss gave me six weeks off work and told me to take some time out.
She told me that she would pay me my normal salary for the entire duration but by the second week my payments stopped.
I had joined the GMB Trade Union and met with the Sports Representative, Brian Johnstone and told him about my concerns.
When I returned to work I asked for my sick pay on many occasions and it was never given to me.
2014
I asked the Club Secretary if I could move to another position in the main office with the other girls doing the Payroll.
She said ‘yes’, and that she would start training me the following week. I wrote about this on my personal Blog.
I decided to write an anonymous letter to the new Owner of the Park Hotel, Billy Bowie and provide him with a list of all the people who had left their long-term jobs.
I sent it into the Killie forum with an anonymous email address and it was posted and circulated everywhere.
I contacted a Player on LInked In who had been dismissed from the Club six months prior, and asked him whether he had received his entire Severance Pay. He asked me if I had ever seen anything dodgy before, and I replied to him 'yes I have' and rang him immediately to discuss the situation.
I related an incident to him that I had witnessed in the office, whereby the Club Secretary had forged a signature of another player on an official document in front of me.
The player gave me the phone number of another player who had left Kilmarnock the year before him, and I spoke to his father at length. He stated that the Player’s Employment Contract had included a page that neither the Player nor his Manager had ever seen before.
I rang two colleagues from the office that I respected and asked them for their advice. One of them was the Commercial Manager at the time, and the other one was the Former Finance Manager.
On the 1st April 2014, I submitted an Official Complaint to the Chairman of Kilmarnock Football Club, along with my resignation from the role, with a cc. to Members of the Board of Directors and SPFL.
For three weeks not a single person contacted me about my Official Complaint.
I published the resignation letter on a public blog and then a young journalist contacted me.
The story was published in the Daily Record and all the football fans went crazy.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/kilmarnock-scottish-professional-football-league-3449000
I registered 'Aussietamara' on the Pie & Bovril football site and answered questions for three days until I got banned.
http://www.pieandbovril.com/forum/index.php?/profile/54058-aussietamara/
The 'tattle-tale' showed up online and we had a massive bitchfight about it, then Pie & Bovril banned me from the site.
The Lawyer for the SPFL, Rod Mackenzie contacted me immediately to take a verbal statement at the offices of the SPFL that week, and the written statement then took us three days to prepare.
The SPFL launched a full investigation, but the ‘forged’ document was never found and it was dismissed.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/scottish-football/10799895/Former-Kilmarnock-employees-complaint-dismissed-by-SPFL.html
The Board of Directors at the Kilmarnock Football Club and Park Hotel banned me from the entire complex.
Not a single person from the Kilmarnock Football Club ever rang to speak with me in person about my Statement.
I met with my GMB Union Representative, Brian Johnstone at the offices of the GMB and their lawyer would not take the case to represent me at the Employment Tribunal for Constructive Dismissal as he did not think that I would win.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/tamara-campbell-made-comments-online-3483533
The Player took his Claim to the Employment Tribunal and lost for lack of evidence. He then took his Claim to the SPFL for an Official Hearing and I was called in as a witness on his behalf, along with the Former Football Manager, Kenny Shiels. After several months of deliberation, the Player lost his case there also.
The Solicitor for the SPFL was Rod Mackenzie and he was instrumental in investigating my Complaint, and the Complaint of the Player represented at the SPFL Hearing.
Rod Mackenzie had also represented the Kilmarnock Football Club in an Employment Tribunal Case in 2014, against a former employee from Housekeeping at the Park Hotel by the name of Shiree Ross. She had also lost her case.
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKEAT/2014/0031_13_2602.html
http://swarb.co.uk/the-kilmarnock-football-club-ltd-v-ross-eat-28-may-2014/
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The fans had a field day with this information, and after the news broke that the forged document was nowhere to be found I suffered a massive blow to my credibility as a witness.
I did not keep a copy of the forged document as it was never handed to me to file away.
The Football Club paid every penny that they owed me for sick and holiday pay.
We settled out of Court instead of going through with an Employment Tribunal Hearing.
I contacted Vince Lunny at the SFA to pursue the matter. He advised me that even if the forged document had been found, that the Player in question would have to testify against Kilmarnock Football Club that the signature was not his.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/30139149The Club Secretary left the Club in the November of 2014, which was six months after the Complaint against her was lodged. The SPFL ruled that her statement at the SPFL on behalf of the Kilmarnock Football Club ‘was not credible or reliable’.
I was offered an amazing job working on the Commonwealth Games and Kenny Shiels provided a reference for me. I had to turn it down and worked for a local firm in Kilmarnock.
The woman who was given the role as the next Club Secretary of Kilmarnock Football Club was the former Finance & Administration Manager from the SPFL who had worked alongside Rod Mackenzie.
https://uk.linkedin.com/in/trivedi-priti-b054175The 'tattle tale' also left the Club. She is nowhere to be found and good riddance to her vicious tales.
All of the remaining Kilmarnock Football Club staff have managed to keep their jobs to this very day.
