Ex-Gate Gourmet HR chief dishes out dispute advice. Hmmm

Alanis Morisette would have a field day. Irony number one: Staff at conciliation service Acas (which steps in when employer disputes get too heavy) have voted to go on strike. Rather amusing you’d agree.

But wait. Andy Cook, who was HR director at airline caterer Gate Gourmet during its messy dispute with unions in 2005, has decided he is best placed to offer advice on the issue.

“It’s difficult to have faith in an organisation that can’t practice what it preaches,” he said, in his new role as director of an industrial relations consultancy.

“Acas needs to move swiftly to resolve this issue to avoid further embarrassment for itself and the Government.”

Probably sound advice, but should we be listening to the man who presided over employee relations at a firm which sacked 800 people at a stroke for being “troublemakers” causing a summer of discontent at Heathrow? Who then jumped ship after just seven months to set up his own consultancy?

As Big Brother would say: You decide.