An open letter to all Master Plumbers, widly circulated to all Associations that I have on my lap topPlease table at all Associations in preparedness for the up coming AGM for discussion. Please include all attachments with this email.
An open letter to all Master Plumber Members, I ask you to consider if this would be acceptable to you to have this happen to your family?
I believe that all members should know what support and understanding you could possibly be in for, as a member of this organisation. My name is Paul Gee, I am an ex president and vice president of the Nelson Association. I was a fully paid up member of about 8 years. I attended a leadership course as I was excited about this organisation and committed to making a contribution. I have attached a copy of my history to give you a background to my situation. This will give you an overview of what happened.
I am very disappointed with certain member’s behaviour and ethics, and even more than that – sometimes completed bewildered by it. I believe that some members are immoral bullies that put their own agenda and needs before others and act in a vindictive, even vicious, manner. They ignore the Societies own rules and act with total disregard for Master Plumber’s code of ethics. These people operate within the safety of an old boy’s network that seems impenetrable and very defensive. These people have made it appear that it is the Society that I have complained about; this is not true, just certain members who don’t abide by their own rules.
They have claimed that now I have resigned, which I believe was the only solution to prevent further persecution, I can not complain about any Master Plumbers…..but they are unable to show me any meaningful Master Plumber rules or codes to back this.
I was very vocal at my associations meetings, airing my concerns about the work of just one person in our community. I was concerned about the standard of his work and the ethic that he used in installing gas in peoples homes. To my mind it was just out and out dangerous. I did this years before an explosion nearly killed someone.
You may be familiar with my story and I apologise for going on and on, but I have lost so very much; that I want it to be clear to all what has happened. I ask you all to think of one thing……..what if this was your family? How would you respond?
I will list my disappointments and I ask all members to consider whether this is acceptable. I would also ask all members where you see Master Plumbers heading in the future… if this sort of behaviour, attitude and direction continues, the membership is in decline along with morale and the industry is at an all time low. All at the hands of a few self servers who abuse the power afforded to them.
I was very vocal with my association and high ranking members at conference. I practically described word for word what could happen and later did happen, i.e. dodgy certs covering dodgy work resulting in an incident. I named John Darnley many times to these people. I did not point the finger at all the gasfitters in my area, as was implied when they audited all the gasfitters in my area, which appears to be the same M.O. as trying to make it appear that it was the whole Society that I had complained about. I reiterate, I have only complained about John Darnley and SOME members of Master Plumbers, not the Society as a whole. Question………why didn’t any one of these people come out and say this is what Paul has been warning about for 6 years? I certainly made it clear to a lot of the high ranking Association members as well as serving members of the Master Plumbers Board what concerns I had. Why was I not offered any support…. instead of railroading me, please see my attached resignation letter for several unacceptable instances that my wife and I endured at the hands of these people.
I am constantly preached to by these people about the code of ethics of Master Plumbers….. by these very people that I have attempted to complain about. But I believe they have ignored their own rules below -
· The Member acknowledges that observance of the Code of Conduct set out below is a fundamental condition of membership of the Society.
· Members shall always act in accordance with good Industry practices, and in a manner that reflects well on the Society, its members, and the Industry.
· Members shall not publicly criticise fellow members.
· Purpose
The purpose of this Code of Practice is to promote good trade and business practices by Master Plumbers and good relationships between Master Plumbers and with their clients by encouraging the highest standards of courtesy and consideration.
· Complaints and inquiries will be handled promptly, reasonably and with due courtesy to the complainant throughout the process.
· Members will not criticise another's workmanship or pricing policies.
In light of these excerpts copied and pasted directly from the code of conduct and listed above, my highlights in red, do you believe the members mentioned in my attached history document and resignation letter has acted within these codes? I believe they have not and I think that the question that needs to be asked….why do these people feel that they are above these codes of conduct and not bound by them… but feel free to pontificate to others? I would ask the Society membership as a whole to consider pushing for a vote of confidence in these people.
3. One board member, who over saw an impartiality hearing, where he voted that he was impartial (which is a total contradiction in terms) signed a letter that threatened yet another investigation into myself, please see attached complaint . This was after a very emotional email to the PGDB CEO, written after leaving my wife and kids crying at the airport for the umpteenth time in the 18 months that I have had to work away for. This email had such an effect on the Board CEO that he laughed it off at a meeting, where one of the people present was the Master Plumber Board Member mentioned earlier. The reason I snapped that day was that I found out that Stephen Parker, the presiding chair at my actual hearing hadn’t registered the full extent of his relationship with Tony Hammond, the so called “impartial” investigator. This was all done after the Master Plumber Board Member mentioned earlier, had presided over my complaints at an “impartiality” hearing and dismissed them, I specifically questioned the investigators impartiality……. so they appoint his colleague to over see my disciplinary hearing. The letter from the Master Plumber Board Member (wearing umpeteen different hats at any one time) is full of half truths and tries to keep me quiet by forcing a confidentially clause upon my self, when pushed about this I am told the clause is only there to protect the privacy of the person complained about. But I am being told that I am bound by this clause even “surviving my resignation”, with a confidentiality clause that is there to protect me from myself? This tack is reiterated by the current Board Chair in the letter dismissing my complaint, see attached. I think this speaks volumes about the true line of thought and agenda behind this letter, to shut me up with non existent Master Plumber rules and codes….while they ignore the ones I can find. I believe that when faced with chairing this complaints committee then the member in question should have stood down, am I to believe he doesn’t remember me or my situation. I don’t believe he can manage his conflicts.
4. On the same “Plumbers Forum” mentioned in the complaint there are many entries made by my self that tells of how I was treated and the effect it was having on my family, but the only ones that these people jump upon and claim moral superiority over is my tantrum after 3 years of persecution and a peaceful protest using swear words, pretty tame considering. For Example, they are happy to over look the entry on this same site about my wife opening very graphic child sexual abuse case notes, sent unmarked and opened by her, just before having to sell her home and live in a caravan with my two sons for a whole winter, while I worked away. These people have a very selective take on ethics.
I ask any or all members to raise this at an association level to prepare in order to table this at the up coming AGM, I regretfully had to resign because of the threat of a further investigation into myself at the hands of these people, as a non member I can not do this. I also ask the members to remember that these people only have power if they are followed, I know that they would not stand up to scrutiny, and as too many involved people are present on the MP Board and the complaints committee, that is why I turn to the society as a whole for their opinion, I was lead to believe that I was a member of an upstanding, moral, ethical fraternity, but my experience leads me to question this…..and so I turn to the members, who are the real back bone of Master Plumbers. I am happy to talk at the AGM if requested.
As far as my experience goes, I put in a lot of time and money, I represented my area as Association President and V.P., I tried to drum up membership, I attended a leadership course, I was told I was “in”……. but I also tried to prevent a dodgy, dangerous, unethical and unqualified person from hurting anyone…..but I complained to the very people who empowered him, these people had connections. The only tangible thing I got in return for this huge personal input was being totally shafted, done with threats and a sticker for my van. Bloody expensive stickers too.
Just think of this – it could happen to any one of you – any one of you. I believed in this organisation – contrary to what some say I did not expect MP to pay my legal bills, or any of my bills, but what I did think I might get is some common human decency, some support from a professional organisation that I had contributed to for many years. And bear this in mind also……the man I complained about…….his work is still out there. If anything like this happens again how will it reflect on Master Plumbers?
Yours Sincerely Paul Gee
Linkback: https://www.plumbers.nz/master-plumbers/66/what-support-you-can-expect-from-master-plumbers-not-many-if-any/1323/
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