Dave Penman (born 1966 or 1967) is a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

leader who serves as general secretary of the

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food s ...

, a trade union for

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil servants hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leaders ...

s in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

Early career

Penman began working as an administrative assistant for the Inland Revenue in

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; gd, Comar nan Allt, meeting of the streams) is a large town in the historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth most-populous locality in Scotland and the most populated t ...

at the age of eighteen. In 1986, he transferred to the Department of Work and Pensions, where he became an executive officer. He soon became active in the

National Union of Civil and Public Servants The National Union of Civil and Public Servants (NUCPS) was a trade union in the United Kingdom. The union was formed in 1988 with the merger of the Civil Service Union and the Society of Civil and Public Servants. John Sheldon (trade unionist ...

(NUCPS), and from 1992 represented it on the general council of the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the first person to hold the "young workers" seat on the council.Matt Ross,
Interview: Dave Penman
, ''Civil Service World'', 1 November 2012

FDA career

In 1995, Penman began working full-time for the NUCPS as an organiser, then in 2000 he transferred to the

union, where he served as national officer. From 2002, he was the union's head of operations, and in 2011 he became its deputy general secretary. Penman was elected as the union's general secretary in 2012. On election, he said that "you couldn’t put a cigarette paper between myself and is predecessor

Jonathan Jonathan may refer to: *Jonathan (name), a masculine given name Media * ''Jonathan'' (1970 film), a German film directed by Hans W. Geißendörfer * ''Jonathan'' (2016 film), a German film directed by Piotr J. Lewandowski * ''Jonathan'' (2018 ...

aumein terms of our approach to trade unionism", and identified the union's key challenge as maintaining pay and conditions to prevent a brain drain from the senior civil service. Since September 2012, he had also served on the General Council of the Trades Union Congress. Penman was re-elected in 2016 for a further five-year term. As general secretary, the FDA launched a legal challenge to Prime Minister

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

's decision not to sack Home Secretary

Priti Patel Priti Sushil Patel (born 29 March 1972) is a British politician who served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Secretary of State for International Development from 2016 to 2017. Patel has been the Me ...

after reports of bullying. The FDA argued that Johnson misinterpreted the definition of bullying in the workplace, and that Patel's presence in the role was detrimental to civil servants. In December 2021, the FDA lost the legal battle, with Penman stating " ilst we are disappointed in the final judgment, there is a lot here that helps us protect civil servants from the conduct of ministers." In November 2022 Penman stated that several ministers under Sunak have bullied civil servants, that bullying has been a problem under successive governments, that civil servants have resigned because they felt they could do nothing about it. Penman urged

Rishi Sunak Rishi Sunak (; born 12 May 1980) is a British politician who has served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party since October 2022. He previously held two Cabinet of ...

to reform the complaints system to help sort out a “toxic work culture” in Whitehall.Dominic Raab’s staff were ‘scared to go into his office’, ex-Foreign Office chief reveals
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

Personal life

In his spare time, Penman supports

Partick Thistle F.C. Partick Thistle Football Club are a professional association football, football club from Glasgow, Scotland. Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick since 1908. ...

and enjoys crime fiction and the theatre.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penman, Dave 1960s births Living people British civil servants General Secretaries of the FDA (trade union) Members of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress People from Cumbernauld