Thursday, August 26, 2004
 Trinity Mirror Aug 20 2004: The code of conduct for Coventry City Council staff has been amended to take out direct reference to the Freemasons and Roman Catholic societies Opus Dei and the Catenians.
All three organisations objected to the code which said staff should declare their membership of "non-public organisations" to their superiors.
The council's standards committee, which is chaired by a judge and includes independent members, changed the wording of the code.
They deleted overt references to Freemasons, Opus Dei and the Catenians. But they made it clear staff who were members of them should still declare it, because the groups were covered by the new wording.
The new ruling reads: "You must therefore declare your membership of any organisation whose rules or requirements of membership could be regarded as suggesting a degree of loyalty to that organisation.
"This could arise by reason of an organisation having an obligation of secrecy about its rules, its membership or conduct and/or a commitment of allegiance or support to that organisation. Such organisations may or may not be charitable concerns and they may also have a local, regional, national, or international aspect."
The Freemasons' legal and democratic services director, Chris Hinde, said they wanted the committee to know they considered themselves a "completely open organisation".
[...]
.....---
.....| Posted at 20:58 | PERMA-LINK |
|
FEED
TOTAL411 PODCAST
SELECTED VIDEO ]