Witness Statement by Phil Underwood, Chief Designer, Magellan UK (Left 0607)
IN THE EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS Case Number 1402867 / 2006
BRISTOL between
MR BRIAN LITTLE
Claimant
And
(1)MAGELLAN AEROSPACE (UK) LIMITED
(2)MAGELLAN AEROSPACE CORPORATION
Respondents
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WITNESS STATEMENT OF PHIL A. UNDERWOOD (Ex Chief Designer)
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I, Phil A Underwood of 6 Southdown, North Worle, Weston Super Mare, Somerset, WILL SAY as follows: -
1. I was working for Mayflower Aerospace as a self-employed Contract Engineer in 2002 when I was first approached to consider joining the Company as a permanent employee. After a number of discussions with Paul Nokes and Paul Winter, including one with Brian Little (recently recruited as CEO) I decided to accept the position of Assistant Chief Designer. My employment contract was TUPED and I continued working for Magellan Aerospace UK after the takeover of Mayflower Aerospace in the same capacity in September 2003.
2. I agreed toaccept the permanent employment contract in 2002 for 3 reasons -
Firstly, because Paul Nokes, Airbus and Brian Little made it clear to me that they wanted Mayflower Aerospace to develop an in-house engineering ‘Centre of Excellence’ and they wanted me to be at the heart of it.
Secondly, because after refusing the employment offer a couple of times I finally decided that with the whole package of basic salary offer and the CEO % discretionary bonus the total financial package was now only a little less than that available to me as a self-employed contractor and I could live at home.
Thirdly, because I respected and believed in the integrity of Geoff Pinner, Airbus Engineering Manager, and Brian Little, the new boss at Mayflower Aerospace Ltd.
3. In 2004 after losing the Airbus A400 ribs design-manufacture package, Brian Little & Simon Bendry persuaded Airbus that Magellan UK could take on technical lead and engineering integration of that work package. This meant we had to work as the technical lead within our competitors office – Clairis / Mecachrome – This involved me spending 18 months – up to four days per week - constantly travelling to and from Toulouse. This was a very tough call for me, which was made worse as my wife was ill throughout this time. But I got all the support I could ask for from Brian, Martin and others.
4. My email of Monday 15 May 2006 to Brian Little document 1721 has been shown to me again in preparing this witness statement.
I wish to provide my recollection of the circumstances at the time. My email was written shortly after I met Brian Little in the late afternoon in the Bristol office. Brian was working in his office and was shortly to join a Canada videoconference for a few hours - he asked to speak with me for a few minutes. Brian primarily spoke to me about the Chief Designer job / role as this had been vacant since late 2005 when Chris Draper left to go to GKN. MALUK had difficulty in filling the role and I was anxious about undertaking the role and my ability to take the technical responsibility that is necessary to carry out those duties. Brian told me that there was to be a Quality Audit in July 2006 and Brian wanted to have the position filled before then – he and others were entirely satisfied I could do the job and that it was more a matter of my own confidence, he was right. I was in fact in the Bristol office quite late preparing and checking work with some of my design colleagues before travelling to Clairis in Toulouse the following morning.
As part of the discussion we spoke about the salary package and MIC bonus and that the Company would be making changes to the Employment Contracts later that month for all the “affected Engineering staff” and that this would be incorporated in a revised employment contract offer. He also clarified that the bonus for FY 2005 would shortly be released and anticipated it would be approximately £6.5k in my case. Can I make clear again neither Brian nor Martin ever promised any specific sums to any individuals and the email I wrote regarding the £10k was my own assessment.
Indeed Brian pointed out to me in a conversation shortly after I sent my email, and before we both left the office that evening at around 10 pm, that the £10K in my email could not have been correct as the maximum the bonus could be was 15% of salary - in my case £8K.
I agreed with Brian and I wish to make clear that my email was more my emotion and frustration rather than anything specifically directed at Brian or Martin.
Indeed I considered the role further and finally told Brian, Martin and Paul that I would accept the position for a probationary period of 6 months with title of Acting Chief Designer. A formal employment contract letter followed from Canada, which is at document 1750, and I signed and returned it on 5 June 2006.
5. When we heard of Brian‘s sacking we were all in shock – in my case for over a week I just couldn’t believe it, it didn’t make any sense to me, To my knowledge the company issued no official statement about it so we were all in the dark about what happened and rumours were rife. So I was surprised that when a leaving do was organised for Brian by various members of the Filton team in October 2006 – attended by around thirty of us - Brian said nothing about the reason/s either. But I do remember he was visibly moved when a card was given to him signed by both those attending and those who couldn’t make it – making it clear amongst other comments that he would be missed (Document 2574/2575).
6. I left Magellan Aerospace UK at the end of July 2007 and was interviewed before leaving by Mary Walker. I have recently had sight of my Exit Interview Proforma (Document 3006-3008). I had no idea that it would be used in this context. The company did not show it to me at the time of my leaving nor at any time afterwards. And it was neither written nor signed by me. It contains the words ‘BL could be a nightmare’ and a number of other misleading comments that I would like to correct.
I did use the word ‘nightmare’ in relation to Brian during that interview, but in an entirely different context. It was his openness and honesty that sometimes made my life difficult during our ‘open’ meetings – held 2-3 times a year and attended by both contractors and employees alike – he spoke as honestly to the contractors as he did to the employees about the various business matters. This sometimes left me with a bit of explaining to do. He would come at you from all angles, which was not really a problem – but it was unexpected.
The whole workforce had a lot of respect for Brian and with him at the helm we felt we were in safe hands.
7. The Exit Interview Proforma highlights the bonus issue but does not describe it accurately. I received 2 bonus payments – one in 2006, for work done in FY2005, and one in 2007, for work done in FY2006.These were different bonus schemes.
The first bonus scheme operated as part of my employment contract within the Engineering Division of Magellan UK Ltd. This stated that certain employees within the Division were entitled to a discretionary bonus for hitting the Division’s annual targets, which we did in 2005. My expectation was that we would share equally whatever monies were ‘in the pot’. And, as a figure of I think it was £80k had been mentioned within one of our away day comms, I had calculated between 8 people that would amount to c£10k each. I understood that the level of our performance entitled us to expect such a figure. So, of course I was disappointed when it turned out to be £6.5k, notwithstanding that no promises were ever made by Martin or Brian about what anyone would get.
In the previous year, 2004, Magellan UK Ltd lost money and no bonuses were either paid or expected because everyone wanted to keep the business alive. But in late 2004/2005 we all bought into Brian’s and Martin’s 100 Day Plans and we hit our customer, teamwork and financial targets so we knew we earned our bonuses as part of our employment contract. In late May 2006 my Employment Contract was amended and I was promoted to Acting Chief Designer only 2 weeks after I was told of the £6.5k bonus for 2005. By accepting this promotion I recognised that I would in future earn my bonus via the corporation-wide Management Incentive Program (MIC). However, I was never told what my targets were under this MIC scheme, nor what I was expected to do to achieve them – only that the scheme offered a potential bonus of 15% of my salary. In the event, in May 2007 I was paid £2.2k – or 3.1% of my salary – as my bonus for 2006. It was reported to me that this May 2007 bonus was only paid to a few people in the Engineering division for FY2006.
8. As to the detail of this Exit interview I could see no prospect of improvement within Magellan UK. I was concerned that we had a rented office, which was due for renewal at the end of the year, and we had little or no work, also my namesake and VP, Phil Underwood didn’t give me confidence within the engineering. He always gave me the impression that he didn’t understand the Engineering division as he was mainly manufacturing orientated. He was supported by Haydn Martin who once said in a meeting that he would close the Engineering Division if he could have his way. The Engineering Division supported the Manufacturing side and neither appeared to understand the strategic need or the engineering process within Airbus for this resource within Magellan.
Then there was Shawn Smith Company Accountant. Shawn never even said good morning to any of the staff within the office, his aloof ‘nose in the air’ manner created a negative atmosphere throughout the Design organisation and lowered morale. People would ask me who is that bloke and what does he do.
The Bristol office was never the same after Brian’s departure - none of the senior people ever spoke to anyone else. When I was offered a job with another company I looked again at this arrogant / stand off quality of senior management and their attitude to the future of the business, and I decided I would be better off elsewhere.
9 John Todd Head of Design A400M told me how disappointed and shocked Geoff Pinner Head of Engineering - Airbus UK was when he heard Brian had left MALUK.
10. I have now learned that the incident cited for Brian’s dismissal was telling Shawn Smith to “f off”. I can say 2 things in regard to this. First, in the 4 years of working closely with Brian I never heard him tell anyone to “f off” – although we had some characters in the Bristol office who would swear including myself from time to time. And secondly, I could imagine a lot of people being upset by Shawn.
Shawn Smith is not mentioned in my Exit Interview because Haydn Martin and Phil Underwood loomed more immediately in my mind at the time as I occasionally interfaced with them – but he also had no understanding of the Engineering side of business and showed no interest in it. So he inspired neither confidence nor respect from anyone I knew in the business.
11 Finally, Ms Walker states “He stated that he did feel that the engineering division had the full support of corporate and that it was like ‘working in a silo’. Didn’t feel part of the corporation.”
In the first of these sentences she has omitted the word ‘not’ and included a phrase I do not recognise and would never have used – ‘working in a silo’. And, by putting it in quotation marks, she implies that I said it, which I did not. It is true, however, that I no longer felt part of the corporation. After Brian left, any sense of being a part of one big team went with him.
So the first sentence should read “He stated that he did not feel that the engineering division had the full support of corporate.”
It was Martin Bellia who told me Mary Walker was coming from Head Office to conduct my exit interview. This was the first and only time that I had met her. I was not asked to prepare any documents ahead of our meeting. Nor was I told that a document would be created and kept on file. Indeed, until Brian Little disclosed it to me I never knew a document even existed.
So may I now say that I am affronted that this is being twisted to make a case against Brian. I consider these Exit Interview notes to be a gross misrepresentation of the facts and an abuse of me personally.
12. Furthermore, I would like it to be known – because I am now also aware of the bullying accusations being made by the company against Brian – that he is not a bully. I have always had every confidence in Brian both as an individual and as a manager. His manner is questioning but to the point. His style is tough but fair, and never intimidating except to those who perhaps deserve it, ie. to those trying to cover up / distract from the real issues. And his ability to know what is going on in all aspects of a business goes far beyond anyone else I have known during my 30-year career.
Phil A Underwood ------
Dated ------
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