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 (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

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 ...

, a trade union for

civil servant The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...

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 Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

Early career

Penman began working as an administrative assistant for the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...

Cumbernauld Cumbernauld (; ) is a large town in the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Dunbartonshire and council area of North Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is the tenth List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, most-populous locality in Scotl ...

at the age of eighteen. In 1986, he transferred to the

Department for Work and Pensions The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for welfare spending, welfare, pensions and child maintenance ...

, 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, former Gener ...

(NUCPS), and from 1992 represented it on the general council of the

Scottish Trades Union Congress The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) is the national trade union centre in Scotland. With 40 affiliated unions as of 2020, the STUC represents over 540,000 trade unionists. The STUC is a separate organisation from the English and Welsh ...

, 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 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 The General Council of the Trades Union Congress is an elected body which is responsible for carrying out the policies agreed at the annual British Trades Union Congresses (TUC). Organisation The council has 56 members, all of whom must be proposed ...

. 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 and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

's decision not to sack Home Secretary

Priti Patel Dame Priti Sushil Patel (born 29 March 1972) is a British politician who has served as Shadow Foreign Secretary since November 2024, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2019 to 2022. A member of the Conservative Party, she was Secr ...

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 served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2022 to 2024. Following his defeat to Keir Starmer's La ...

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 football club from Glasgow, Scotland and currently plays in the . Despite their name, the club are based at Firhill Stadium in the Maryhill area of the city, and have not played in Partick sinc ...

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