Jo Phoenix vs The OU Employment Tribunal 2nd October (whispers Ben Cooper)

[ickky]

Employment Tribunal starts next Monday, not sure if it is available for remote viewing.

I have sent a request so we will see.

If you read this mornings Tribunal Tweets, they are all in there.

So finished for today, resume at 10am tomorrow.

I heard Maya being interviewed, and she said that she bumped into Judge Tayler at an event, and she asked him who would play him, in the film.

That's it til tomorrow at 10am.

Full cast listed on the TT substack here https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/professor-jo-phoenix-v-the-open-university

Thanks both

I don’t know anything about their employment tribunals, but I do have professional experience of Watford court in another area, and my impression of them in those matters was total staggering incompetence, so it seems like that might be across the board.

Anyone know if it's possible still to apply for online access for tomorrow?

Any thoughts on how it's going so far?

From Tribunal Tweets it seems like the OU Barrister is trying to imply that Jo Phoenix has a particular agenda/theory in her head and is interpreting events through the distorted lens of that theory and/or being deliberately provocative to colleagues she disagrees with on the matter of self id.

Is that about right? It's quite difficult to follow what the questions mean / are driving at!

It's not. I emailed the court before the hearing, got an irrelevant standard auto response, phoned the court and was told that my email was among more than 50 other applications (possibly an awful lot more) that could not be granted a PIN and access because their IT system didn't have capacity. It now seems that only 30 people have been issued with the info required to watch remotely. Probably hundreds refused. I've been in Zoom conferences which involved 300+ people, but this is the Employment Tribunal and it's open dial-up, apparently.

I've come out of today with the impression that the OU defence is going to be a melange of a storm in a teacup/paranoia/difference of opinion between individuals.

The bloody difficult woman line of attack then?

Absolutely. Us women, so brusque, so peevish, so unwilling to utterly capitulate. We'll be wanting the vote next!

I think they are trying to portray her as a campaigner who was pursuing an agenda against the OU. But it's not clear.

It's not surprising we can't easily glean what the barrister is trying to get at. She will not want to signpost to the witness where she is going and what answer or concession she wants. She will want to manoeuvre JP there without her knowing what is going on. Also, we have not seen the written pleadings and other documents so we are somewhat flying blind!

Are there really so few of us with access? That is quite shocking, in this day and age. I thought Covid had pushed technology along at light speed.

Looking at the line up of her ex colleagues, all ready to denounce her, it seems likely that is what they are there to say.

I'm so glad I'm out of that environment these days. I've not met JP, but I relate to what she has been through.

I couldn't get access @Melissamelisante

@Melissamelisante I've emailed twice now and just received an auto-response. I'm resigned to following Tribunal Tweets on Xwitter.

It really is appalling that no others are getting the link and pin. It is exactly the same webpage as others, you just put a different pin in for different courts. I cannot see why they won't admit any more observers.

Any that have been refused. Please do put in a complaint on the link a PP posted.

I asked again this morning, and didn't receive any response at all.
So, I'm not holding my breath.

Copied from Tribunal Tweets

Abbreviations

JP - Jo Phoenix, Claimant (C)
OU - The Open University, Respondent (R)
J - Regional Employment Judge Young
P - Panel or panel member
BC - Ben Cooper KC, Counsel for C
JM - Jane Mulcahy KC, Counsel for R

OU Departments & Networks:

HWSRA - Health & Wellbeing Strategic Research Area
FASS - Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
SPC - Dept of Social Policy & Criminology
KMi - Knowledge Media Institute
GCRN - Gender Critical Research Network

OU witnesses

CW - Chris Williams, Senior Lecturer History
CT - Catherine Tomlinson, Senior Student Advisor
SE - Sarah Earle, Prof of Medical Sociology, Director HWSRA 2016-22
DD - Dr Deborah Drake, Senior Lecturer Criminology, Head of SPC 2018-21
LW - Louise Westmarland, Prof of Criminology, Co-Deputy Head SPC, 2018-21, Current Head SPC
LD - Dr Leigh Downes, Senior Lecturer in Criminology (in SPC), Academic Lead for EDI FASS 2019-21
PB - Dr Paraskevi Boukli, Former Senior Lecturer Criminology, Deputy Head SPC 2021-22
MW - Prof Marcia Wilson, Dean EDI, 2020-23
CM - Caragh Molloy, Group People Director 2019-23
JD - John Domingue, Prof of Computing Science, Director KMi, 2015-22
PK - Peter Keogh, Professor Health & Society, Member RSSH
CW - Dr Christopher Williams, Senior Lecturer History
SD - Shaun Daley, Head OU’s Resourcing Hub. Head Strategic Resources, Co-Chair OU’s LGBT+ Staff Network
HBC - Helen Bowes-Catton, Lecturer Social Research Methods
NS - Nicola Snarey, Assoc Lecturer Eng Language
NatS - Natalie Starkey, Outreach & Public Engagement Officer Sch Physical Sciences, 2019-22
CT - Cath Tomlinson, Senior Student Advisor
SJ - Samantha Jacobson, Employee Relations Case Manager
RH - Richard Holliman, Prof Engaged Research, Head School Environment, Earth & Ecosystem Sciences, 2019-22. Member of Investigation Panel investigating the C’s grievance

Witness for JP:

ST - Selina Todd, Professor Modern History Uni of Oxford, Founding member GCRN

From that list I want to hear what RH has to say as a member of the investigating panel. Just a member, not the chair?

It's even more annoying when we've dialled into how many tribunals now, and we haven't experienced such ineptitude.

Especially, when they knew this hearing was going to generate lots of digital observers.
This shouldn't have caught them with their pants down.

I don't think the Judge is helping matters, either.

SD is keen on pronouning it. I'm having a gander at the witness "folks" in my idle moments.
Mainly because I'm a nosey sod.

Any update as to the Judge giving Judges's own pronouns on Monday? Were other court staff required to? Or was it just Jo and lawyers?

they knew this hearing was going to generate lots of digital observers

except it hasn’t as the helpful IT issues mean only a select few are able to actually observe online.

it’s very easy to read conspiracy into all of this, but I do lean towards incompetence as the most likely explanation. I watched Partygate on C4 last night and am quite depressed about the low standards of competency in public life at the moment anyway.