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Original poster

GC solicitor needed to respond to HR letter.

32 replies

SphincterSaysWhat · 17/08/2022 09:41

Hi all,

I wonder if anyone might know the names of any employment solicitors out there who have experience with GC views.

My sister has received a letter from her HR admonishing her for her GC views. They've sent it along with their harassment and bullying policies.

In the letter they list the protected characteristics of the equality act, and conflate sex and gender - they fail to know the diff between the two, but even if it were gender, it wouldn't apply here.

I actually am a lawyer but this isn't my area - I would like to take some time with DS to provide a response and want someone who is experienced in this area to help.

Thoughts?

Thank you all x

OP posts:
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KatMcBundleFace · 28/09/2022 16:40

Thanks for keeping us up to date with this op!

Original poster
SphincterSaysWhat · 28/09/2022 15:54

Hi all, no update as such - DSis was on hols (her first in eleventy million years) and so was I the week before, so we've been ships in the night for the last month. Too busy, but this week I am planning on drafting a response for her. I'll defo cut and paste here. I'll let you know their response.

They're a tricky company to work for and need reining in a little, I feel (easy for me to say, I don't work there) but I believe if you quote the law, get it right. Furthermore, their discrimination towards her thanks to her (protected) GC beliefs is showing...

I was chatting about this issue with a (female) friend who is very high up in a construction company (she's one of the only women in her position - C-Suite - in this industry). She couldn't believe DSis's company had done this - she and DSis have chatted in the past about the discrimination and the comments and the 'lairiness' they've been subject to as women in the same industry (admittedly at different levels) and neither has ever raised even a sniff of a grievance, though they would have been well within their rights.

Even just thinking about that makes me fucking angry.

OP posts:
TheBiologyStupid · 20/09/2022 22:14

waterwitch · 20/09/2022 06:23

Thankyou for the update, would be lovely to get a quick ‘this was the response’ and hopefully, ‘it’s all sorted’ Fingers crossed

+1

Igmum · 20/09/2022 22:07

Fingers crossed for you and thanks for the update

pattihews · 20/09/2022 10:50

Pleased to hear the update. Will wait to find out the HR's reaction to your robust response. I hope they'll be quaking in their boots.

elferian · 20/09/2022 09:37

Needmoresleep · 17/08/2022 15:03

I hope the OP is genuine and not someone trying to make a list of solicitors willing to take on GC cases.

I understand Sonia Appleby's solicitor (the Tavi whistleblower) was www.branchaustinmccormick.com/team/elliot-hammer/

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lawyer-of-the-week-elliot-hammer-who-won-a-case-for-a-whistleblower-who-raised-concerns-about-childrens-safety-at-englands-only-nhs-transgender-clinic-l80gwm708

it actually made me tearful that this is what we have come to, surely the madness has to end

waterwitch · 20/09/2022 06:23

Thankyou for the update, would be lovely to get a quick ‘this was the response’ and hopefully, ‘it’s all sorted’ Fingers crossed

PegasusReturns · 20/09/2022 03:25

Brilliant! I hope your Dsis gets an apology from HR.

FigRollsAlly · 20/09/2022 00:16

Thanks for the update. Glad you’ve had such excellent help. Hope your Dsis gets a grovelling apology (wishful thinking but I hope at least the letter gets the result she wants).

Original poster
SphincterSaysWhat · 19/09/2022 21:55

Update on this (if there's any interest). Peter spoke with DSis and then followed up with an email. He can take this further by drafting a formal letter of response for her - but he considered this maybe not necessary, perhaps a but aggressive. So we are - with his input (already given) - going to respond ourselves (and by that, I mean she will response and I'll give her a hand.

So that's next! Thank you all, Peter was amazing.

OP posts:
rabbitwoman · 18/08/2022 10:16

(I might also add that admonishing me for a protected belief would count as bullying and harassment in itself, and if they took it further I might put in a complaint which I would have a very good chance of winning. But that's me*

*this may well be awful advice)

Onandupw · 18/08/2022 10:13

Didlaw

rabbitwoman · 18/08/2022 10:12

I haven't got a lot of advice myself but, wow!!

Your sister's employer, who on earth are they?? I am fairly sure that HR departments aren't writing to Atheists, Meat Eaters or Tories/ Labour voters about their personal opinions and how they express them!!

Don't they follow the latest developments in employment law, aren't they part of a professional body? Do they not even read HR today?

This is completely unqualified advice, but if that happened to me I probably would not bother with a solicitor in the first instance. I would knock it straight on the head by sending a quick email attaching one of the many articles or blogs on the Bailey or Forstater case, pointing out that gender critical beliefs are protected in law and so is the right to express them.

Maybe they are just behind the curve?

Lemonblossom · 17/08/2022 23:08

I’ve PMd you OP

perfectstorm · 17/08/2022 23:01

Jo Phoenix has posted details of the lawyers for her case here. Of course, I can't know their views, but her case is a gc one. Her solicitors are Annie Powell and Elizabeth George from Leigh Day, and she is using Naomi Cunningham and Ben Cooper (Maya's barrister) too. At the very least, none of them can be prejudiced against GC views and those espousing them.

Annie Powell is phenomenal. She was the solicitor who first realised that Uber's business model relied on employing staff, yet treating them as freelancers - everyone knows the outcomes of that. I'd use her in a heartbeat - she does a really interesting talk on what happened there

Original poster
SphincterSaysWhat · 17/08/2022 22:16

It was on Gender: a wider lens (with Stella o'malley) - on Spotify. ep 81.

OP posts:
Original poster
SphincterSaysWhat · 17/08/2022 22:13

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 17/08/2022 21:48

So that was why Maya changed solicitors partway through... And IIRC, it caused problems with the crowdfunding as well.

Gits!

Exactly. I'll try and find the poddy hang on...

OP posts:
Grananger · 17/08/2022 21:49

PacificState · 17/08/2022 13:16

I think Anya Palmer is a barrister but if you contact her office maybe they can recommend a solicitor? (Don't work in law as is probably obvious - maybe they aren't that helpful!) oldsquare.co.uk/people/anya-palmer/

Oh she was my counsel! Massive crush on her.

PurgatoryOfPotholes · 17/08/2022 21:48

So that was why Maya changed solicitors partway through... And IIRC, it caused problems with the crowdfunding as well.

Gits!

Original poster
SphincterSaysWhat · 17/08/2022 21:46

Thanks all for your continued assistance. DS and I are going to wait until Mr Daly back and then see if he'll take this on. It's not a massive undertaking so I have fingers crossed!

OP posts:
Original poster
SphincterSaysWhat · 17/08/2022 21:45

Needmoresleep · 17/08/2022 15:03

I hope the OP is genuine and not someone trying to make a list of solicitors willing to take on GC cases.

I understand Sonia Appleby's solicitor (the Tavi whistleblower) was www.branchaustinmccormick.com/team/elliot-hammer/

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lawyer-of-the-week-elliot-hammer-who-won-a-case-for-a-whistleblower-who-raised-concerns-about-childrens-safety-at-englands-only-nhs-transgender-clinic-l80gwm708

I assure you, I am. I also think that since Forstater there will be more like Daly willing to take on cases like these. Did you know that Maya went down the road with a solicitor at a well known stonewalled firm who then, even though she was on her way and had instructed etc, told their own solicitor she couldn't continue to act for Maya. Outrageous. Once they'd taken it on the reasons for letting her go have to be spot on - I think I know which firm it is and I think Maya should report them to the SRA for wasting her fucking time.

OP posts:
GreenUp · 17/08/2022 16:43

Didlaw are discrimination/employment specialist solicitors in London. They are handling Sarah Summers' discrimination case for non-provision of single sex rape crisis support groups and have blogged a lot on GC cases.

didlaw.com/sarah-summers-press-release-3-may-2022

From twitter, Liz McGlone seems to be knowledgeable about GC cases.
twitter.com/LizMcG_emplaw
didlaw.com/who/elizabeth-mcglone

And I think Kate Lea is Sarah Summer's solicitor didlaw.com/who/kate-lea

Abitofalark · 17/08/2022 15:32

Harriet Wistrich, solicitor, could probably suggest someone, if it's not her. She runs the centre for Women's Justice (set up by her and Julie Bindel) but that's more to do with violence, I think.

Jane Deighton has long been a pioneering employment law solicitor bringing cases of sex discrimination - has probably retired by now but I think there's still a firm with her name attached.

Needmoresleep · 17/08/2022 15:20

Sorry, that sounded a bit grouchy. However given some of the behaviours, I would not be surprised if it had not occurred to some people to draw hit lists and actively target lawyers willing to work in this area.

Needmoresleep · 17/08/2022 15:03

I hope the OP is genuine and not someone trying to make a list of solicitors willing to take on GC cases.

I understand Sonia Appleby's solicitor (the Tavi whistleblower) was www.branchaustinmccormick.com/team/elliot-hammer/

www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lawyer-of-the-week-elliot-hammer-who-won-a-case-for-a-whistleblower-who-raised-concerns-about-childrens-safety-at-englands-only-nhs-transgender-clinic-l80gwm708