A director on the Recruitment & Employment Confederation’s (REC’s) governing body has resigned, citing concerns over a “misunderstanding” that led to former chairman Angela Masters staying in office longer than the organisation’s rules allowed.

Kim-Marie Freeston, a director since June 2005, said this morning (14 March) in a statement that she resigned on 9 March in connection with “the misunderstanding… This resulted in the contravention of the REC’s Articles of Association, which was a matter of great concern to me”.

The REC announced last week (recruiter.co.uk, 11 March) that Masters was standing down from the chairman’s post. Since January, her continuation in the chair’s position had come under fire from a group of members who alleged that Masters had overstayed the three-year maximum term of office.

The REC blamed a misunderstanding for a discrepancy over Masters’ official starting date as chair. In the REC statement, Masters was quoted as saying that she would end her 23-year involvement with the recruitment industry’s largest trade body at its annual general meeting in June.

Freeston’s statement went on to say: “Several options to deal with the matter were put to the board in February, none of which required Angela to resign without delay, which I found unsatisfactory. I insisted that Angela should resign forthwith or I would resign myself. Finally, Angela resigned on 4 March. I had hoped that this would allow me to continue, but on reflection I felt this was not possible.”

Freeston said she would not comment further at this time.

The REC had not responded by Monday’s press deadlines to Recruiter’s request for comment on Freeston’s resignation.