The future of the CBI was called further into doubt on Friday after a leading insurer quit the organisation following a second allegation of rape from a woman working at the business lobby group.
Aviva said it had cancelled its membership with the CBI after the latest allegations were published by the Guardian. The FTSE 100 insurer said it had informed the CBI in writing.
The loss of one of the UK’s biggest companies will be a hammer blow to the organisation and calls into question whether it can survive a fresh set of allegations.
“In light of the very serious allegations made, and the CBI’s handling of the process and response, we believe the CBI is no longer able to fulfil its core function — to be a representative voice of business in the UK,” said Aviva.
“We have therefore regrettably terminated our membership with immediate effect.”
The move came after a second woman alleged that she was raped while working for the CBI, according to a report in the Guardian.
The allegation, which the CBI has now passed to the police, is the latest in a series of claims about the workplace culture, including sexual harassment, drug-taking and bullying that have rocked the UK employers’ organisation in recent weeks.
Aviva follows the British Insurance Brokers’ Association, a trade body, which informed the CBI last week that it was cancelling its membership due to the allegations.
Senior business figures have warned that the loss of one of the largest members could trigger further departures. “Everyone is waiting for others to do something . . . when they do it could be a domino effect,” one finance executive told the Financial Times, before the latest set of allegations were revealed in the Guardian on Friday.
The CBI said on Thursday that it had been passed information about a serious crime and was now “liaising closely” with the police.
The Guardian reported that the new case of rape had taken place at one of the CBI’s overseas offices, but declined to specify the date of the incident or the country where it took place in order to protect the alleged victim’s identity.
The City of London Police is already investigating an allegation of rape at a 2019 CBI staff party on a boat on the Thames, alongside a series of other allegations of misconduct made by a dozen people who have worked at the organisation.
Fox Williams, the law firm, is conducting an independent investigation into those allegations, which have led to the suspension of three staff. The CBI has said it expects to publish the conclusions from that report early next week.
Separately, the CBI sacked its former director-general Tony Danker earlier this month for previous workplace misconduct.
Danker said this week that he had been made the “fall guy” for the much more serious allegations that had since emerged and now threaten the future of the CBI, which has cancelled all its public events after being frozen out by government and membership organisations.
The Guardian report included graphic details of the second alleged rape, which the woman said took place at the hands of two men after a night of heavy drinking.
The woman said she had no recollection of the rape itself, but had described in detail the physical signs that led her to believe she was raped and was later presented in the office with an explicit photograph related to the incident.
The woman told the Guardian that she blamed the CBI for allowing an atmosphere to be created in which such incidents could take place, and for failing to provide adequate human resources support.
CBI president Brian McBride said in a statement that the allegations reported in the Guardian were “abhorrent” and that the CBI had not been previously aware of them. “It is vital that they are thoroughly investigated now and we are liaising closely with the police to help ensure any perpetrators are brought to justice,” he added.
Separately the Guardian also reported a case from 2018 in which a female employee was stalked by a male colleague. An internal CBI investigation made a finding of harassment, but the incident was not taken to the police.
Dame Carolyn Fairbairn, who was director-general of the CBI at the time, told the Guardian that she was not made aware of the complaint, describing the decision not to bring it to her attention as “appalling”.
She added: “Any woman facing shocking abuse of this kind deserves immediate care, protection and the full support of her employer and the law.”
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