Charlotte Revely is making a whistleblower and sexual discrimination claim
A leading member of Britain's largest teachers' union was branded a "sexually discriminating bully" at a tribunal.
The allegations against Jim Quigley, of the National Association of Schoolmasters and Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT), were made during a preliminary hearing in Exeter.
Charlotte Revely, 51, a former union employee, is making a whistleblower and sexual discrimination claim.
The NASUWT strongly rebutted the claims.
Charlotte Revely worked for the union as a professional assistant in its South West regional centre in Exeter from January 2013 until she quit in August 2014.
Ms Revely, from Hinton St George, Somerset, made a witness statement in which she made allegations against the union and Mr Quigley, an assistant general secretary.
"Gagging orders"
She said: "NASUWT has sustained this bullying culture over a long period of time by silencing staff who might speak out."
She claimed that gagging orders are routinely used in settlement agreements as "a frequently used mechanism for silencing dissent and closing down complaints rather than investigating them".
Ms Revely claimed the union has withheld documents which support her case.
She said: "The evidence will show concerns raised about Mr Quigley's behaviour being ignored over a long period."
At the public hearing, her barrister Peter Wareing made an application for the union's defence to the allegations to be struck out.
She strongly denies an allegation she broke into a locked desk and took a confidential document, saying it was a falsehood circulated about her during her time working for the union.
Her allegations were rejected by the union's lawyers at yesterday's hearing.
They claimed she had made "vitriolic remarks" and a "number of personalised remarks" which were to be disregarded by the tribunal.
They accused the claimant of a "fishing expedition" to get confidential documents going back ten years which they called "onerous, oppressive and irrelevant".
The hearing to strike out continues.
A full tribunal hearing date has been set aside for next month.
