Noah Duckworth Statement (Nov 2021)

Many of you will be unaware of the rather serious litigation action against the club which, as matters currently stand, is proceeding to its conclusion at a main hearing in March 2022 following several preliminary hearings. The last hearing was heard on 17 August 2021.

For obvious reasons the former employee, Noah Duckworth, cannot comment personally, however, as I feel it absolutely necessary for members to be informed of matters I’ve decided to provide this statement to the extent that my limited understanding of the detail will allow.

Background

Noah Duckworth became a member of NSRC around 2006 at the age of seven. Having experienced bullying at school for much of his life because of his disabilities, particularly his hearing loss, joining the club was a transformative experience for him.

“School was a bit rough for me. But when I started to play squash with my dad and my brother it made me forget about the bullying. Because I felt confident around people in the squash club it kind of gave me more confidence as a person in everyday situations.”

By the age of 17, having lived and breathed squash at the club for 10 years, Noah had become sufficiently proficient to earn himself a place on the England squad competing at the 2016 Deaf Squash Championships in South Africa

In that same year, 2016, he began working part-time at the club for a few hours a week and continued to do so for the next three years. In January 2019 it was agreed that he commence a business administration apprenticeship with the club and that March Noah became a full time employee of the club.

Extraordinary General Meeting

Having been asked to stand at the 16 October 2019 AGM due to his expertise as Director of an international car manufacturing company Noah’s father, Nick Duckworth, became the Club Chairman and led the Board of Directors through the challenging Covid 19 period – that is until the tumultuous club events of the summer of 2020.

Having become disgruntled with aspects of the club’s management a group of members garnered sufficient support to force the convening of an EGM in order to oust the Duckworth-led Committee. At the EGM of 13 October 2020 that goal was achieved resulting, following the early resignation of the newly elected Treasure Adam Hildred after only two weeks, in a Committee of just four: Gawain Briars (Chairman), Steve Payne (Secretary), Richard O’Connor (Treasurer) and Gerry Hargreaves (Premises Chair).

The Roger Cockle email

On 26 August 2020, in the build up to the above mentioned EGM, ordinary club member, Roger Cockle, sent an email to members specifically stating “Please note that this message has been sent to all members”. The email contained a series of allegations against both the Chairman and his son Noah.

Against Nick Duckworth allegations, amongst others, of nepotism, of being arrogant and of being coercive.

Against Noah Duckworth a most serious allegation of having fabricated his contract of employment and that he was not an employee but a casual worker. Additionally the email discloses, to all members, the most sensitive of personal information, that of Noah Duckworth’s pay for the month of July 2020.

Setting aside the veracity of the above allegations and statements contained within the email several obvious questions are begged;

1. How did an ordinary club member obtain the email addresses of all members?
   
2. How did an ordinary club member obtain salary information of a member of staff?

To my knowledge these most pertinent of questions have yet to be answered.

It’s worth noting that the joint signatories to the Cockle email included the, then, ordinary members Steve Payne and Joerg Thuneke. It must therefore follow that they fully endorsed the content of the email.

Steve Payne was elected as club Secretary at the EGM (13 October 2020) and was one of the four Directors who made the decision to dismiss Noah Duckworth. Joerg Thuneke was elected as a Director at the subsequent AGM (13 January 2021)

Click here to view/download the Cockle email

Alleged wrongful dismissal

At the Committee meeting of 4 November 2020 the following took place according to the official minutes:

• “the process of releasing all casual staff was discussed”
• “The decision to release all the casual staff was confirmed and the process was finalised.”
• “Due to Lockdown the Club is now closed with the permanent staff on furlough.”

As confirmed elsewhere the “released” workers included Noah Duckworth whom the Directors deemed, just as Roger Cockle had done, a casual worker.

Indeed the minutes of 18 November confirm that the Committee had managed to convince themselves that Noah Duckworth could be deemed a casual worker as indicated in the below quotation;

• “ND’s status was again discussed and it was noted that there was no permanent contract, apprenticeship had been completed and therefore employed on a casual basis, and with no options for work in the future decision was confirmed.”

The above strongly suggests that the Committee failed to seek legal advice as they appear to have come to that conclusion between themselves. This would prove to have been an extremely costly error.

Based on the information available it would appear that Noah Duckworth commenced legal action against the club in late November 2020 as the minutes of the 16 December Committee meeting indicate the apparent rejection of arbitration.

• “After a further discussion it was decided that the committee would decline to enter into any further discussion via ACAS at present. SP to inform ACAS as to the decision.”

Employment Tribunal Preliminary hearing and judgement

On 17 August 2021 an open preliminary hearing was convened solely to determine the employment status of Noah Duckworth during his engagement by the club: whether or not he had, on the one hand, been a casual worker as the Committee appeared to have concluded between themselves or, on the other hand, had been an employee as claimed by Noah Duckworth.

I will simply quote here the Judgement of Employment Judge Butler

• “The Judgment of the Tribunal is that the Claimant [Noah Duckworth] was an employee of the Respondent [NSRC] from 1 July 2018 until his dismissal with effect from 30 November 2020”

Click here to view/download the Judgment and Reasons

Next Steps

Following this crushing decision against the club matters now proceed to the main hearing in March 2022.

The hearing will not only consider Noah Duckworth’s claim for wrongful dismissal but also, as is a matter of common knowledge, a grievance claim against the club in respect of allegations of bullying.

As with the preliminary hearing the outcome of this main hearing, Judgment and Reasons, willl be made available on this website as an update.

< Back to the Noah Duckworth Page