Period dignity officer update

[BaileySharp]

They've scrapped the role
www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-62807683

Rather than appoint a woman they're just scrapping it

They tend to have medical degrees and qualifications, not a couple of years flogging cancer sticks, some more helping women in very little clothing get bigger arses and then being around vulnerable 18 year olds when they've left home for the first time and giving them leaflets about depression.

They should've called it Chief Mansplainer to be more accurate.

Extremely unusual to get any redundancy pay before two years even if its contractual. I say this with a professional background in such matters.

Settlement agreement would be mote likely in this scenario.

That courier article is worth a read. Dog with a done indeed!

Because they are medically trained. Jason has no magical training.

Spell checker no magical, medical!

Lets say I said to you there were 3 applicants for this job, 2 were called for interview, one man one woman. How do you have any personal data which would help you identify anyone (apart from Jason Grant) from that?

It wouldn't but as Jason's CV is now public DCC would not want the other interviewee to know they lost in a contest of two, particularly if they suspect the employment process was corrupted by a personal relationship. If the other candidate or candidates could demonstrate they were better qualified or had more relevant experience then it could open DCC up to further legal action which may expose corrupt hiring practices.
I think they're less worried about the public finding out who the other applicants were and more worried about the other applicants finding out how small the field was.

I think DCC will settle to avoid scrutiny in a court.

It's a mess.

IANAL but I'd have thought he would be unlikely to succeed. Employment protections only kick in after two years of employment.

Of course, you can sue someone for discrimination in the hiring process - eg a woman could sue if she felt a less well-qualified man had been given a role instead of her. But Jason was hired and then they got rid of the job role. That happens all the time, though not usually so quickly. They didn't hire someone else instead of him. So I can't see on what basis he can argue his case. And quite frankly, if it did go to tribunal, then we'd be able to see just how unqualified he was for the role.

So Jason may not have a case but if it goes to court they'll be scrutiny....they'll settle.

That's my bet too.

I don't necessarily blame him for taking this route - no-one likes to find themselves out of a job - but it does show the sort of opportunistic, 'looking out for number 1' attitude that might lead a man to, say, apply for a period dignity officer job, regardless of the blindingly obvious fact a woman would be a better fit.

Surely any other candidates (if there were any) will have been able to work out that it was a small field and be able to make the comparison of qualifications to Jason anyway FOJN ?

Interesting that Emma Barnett on WH just said they invited Jason and those responsible for his appointment onto the programme but that's not going to happen now he's taking legal action. She also brought it up when discussing the appointment of a man as women's equalities minister.
I do feel she's on the ball on this stuff.

Isn't the latest equalities minister a woman? Amanda Solloway?
Since when were the duties solely focussed on LGBT? Aren't there nine protected characteristics that they should be concerned with?
We really need to go back to having a minister for women.

Interesting set of tweets:

Dundee and Angus College's recruitment process behind Jason Grant's hire is arguably the most interesting part of this whole story

thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/h… via @thecourieruk

But I wonder how it can be a successful discrimination claim when effectively the appointment should have been reserved for women and that female candidates were excluded from their chance to apply for the job because of a botched and unfair recruitment process.

Because it's not his fault that this wasn't done, it's the people who were responsible for employing him. As a candidate for a tribunal, he has a good case against them. Their idiocy isn't his problem.

One more tweet from further down that thread @ScreamingMeMe

This would be on the grounds of sex discrimination, he doesn't need two years, because EA discrimination claims don't require any qualifying period. He was dismissed because there was a public backlash because he was male. How unqualified he was isn't relevant unless he consciously tried to present himself in a dishonest way. He's never actually done anything in the role I don't think so they can't base it on performance.

That's interesting. I too think they will try and settle. But this sudden spotlight might make things become a lot more tricky to just get out of.

I hope the person who put in the FOI requests now follows up by formally asking the college to review their decision not to provide even the number of applicants for the post (which needs to be done within 40 days) and then puts in an appeal to the Scottish Information Commissioner. In light of the huge public concern around this recruitment process, I don't think they'll get away with claiming a Section 38 exemption.
It sounds like this is not the first time a job at Dundee and Angus college has gone to the single applicant, so I'm glad that all the international attention this has been getting might force them to improve their hiring practices in future.

Nadhim Zahawi was appointed Equalities Minister by Liz Truss on Tuesday. Lots of comment in the media today about dropping the 'women' part.

Jason already had/ has a job so he wasn’t unemployed. He was an opportunist who got the job not because of what he knows, but who he knows.

Thanks @CriticalCondition
I'm not keeping up!

In my defence I'm engrossed in the Ink Black Heart and can't be bothered with the news just now.

It does seem a revolving door position, FannyCann. I had never even heard of Amanda Solloway! Let's hope Nadim Zahawi is there for long enough to do something sensible for women. I gather the brief hasn't changed, even if the title has.

Does Nadim know what a woman is, at least?

I read it that there would be just the Equalities Minister, thus dropping women's and LBG and T. Or does the latter still have a ministry?