Prof Jo Phoenix vs The OU - Employment Tribunal Thread 6

[ickky]

Started on 2nd October at Watford Employment Tribunal (Radius House, 51 Clarendon Rd, Watford WD17 1HP 01923 281750)

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URGENT CURRENT CASE - Public Access Request - J Phoenix - The Open University - 3322700/2021

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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

PB - Dr Paraskevi Boukli, Former Senior Lecturer Criminology, Deputy Head SPC 2021-22
IF - Prof Ian Fribbance Dean of FASS
MW - Prof Marcia Wilson, Dean EDI, 2020-23
CM - Caragh Molloy, Group People Director 2019-23
LD - Dr Leigh Downes, Senior Lecturer in Criminology (in SPC), Academic Lead for EDI FASS 2019-21
PK - Peter Keogh, Professor Health & Society, Member RSSH
CW - Dr Christopher Williams, Senior Lecturer History
KS - Kevin Shakesheff. PVC for Research and Innovation
DD - Dr Deborah Drake, Senior Lecturer Criminology, Head of SPC 2018-21
CT - Catherine Tomlinson, Senior Student Advisor
LW - Louise Westmarland, Prof of Criminology, Co-Deputy Head SPC, 2018-21, Current Head SPC
JD - John Domingue, Prof of Computing Science, Director KMi, 2015-22
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:

SE - Sarah Earle, Professor Modern History Uni of Oxford, Founding member GCRN

Tribunal Tweets - twitter.com/tribunaltweets

TT coverage so far - https://tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/professor-jo-phoenix-v-the-open-university

Prof Jo Phoenix Witness Statement (scroll to bottom of page and download)

jophoenix.substack.com/p/phoenix-v-open-university?sd=pf

Thread 1 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4905118-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-2nd-october-whispers-ben-cooper?page=1

Thread 2 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4913946-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-2?page=1

Thread 3 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4917480-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-3

Thread 4 www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4918479-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-4

Thread 5 https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4919223-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-5

So far the witness is agreeing that academic freedom required him to not discriminate against the GCRN I look forward to him explaining why he discriminated

JD: I was line managing s o with Aspergers beginning to transition and they were being harassed on twitter c being a transphobe

BC: yes being called a transphobe is v upsetting. And being made c members of GCRN

JD: I was focused on my staff. Probably I was aware (c GCRN).

[I have a v impt job as director of lab]

Athena Swan - supporting, encouraging and promoting women in STEM. Or, now 'women' in STEM.

Witness had a member of staff with Aspergers who had had a tough time with caring responsibilities and was starting to transition and was getting told on social media that they were a transphobe, and so they were concerned for that staff member.

"I am very important, I have done research with the inventor of the web"

BC: you were asked to remove the OU logo. Treating GCRN worse than other SRA members

JD: no. Need to understand the context. We are computer science research lab - some of the way the web works today is because of the work I have done

Witness - waffles.

I bet BC comes back with, still taking your logo off the GCRN and mot any of the others means you were discriminating against them

BINGO

JD: every statement made for GCRN would be a statement people think is from KMI. The attacks we were getting were all re GCRN and we didn't want to be in the middle of that esp as my t staff member was being trolled

But it wasn't the GCRN who 'trolled' his dopey member of staff.

If their logo doesn't add any value, why take it off then?

And only from the GCRN, too.

Why have the logo on any of the hosted networks then?

So he did discriminate he just doesn't think it was discrimination

Other people wanted us to discriminate, so we did?

Witness - I did not think the removal of the logo would matter - but why remove it then?

BC: if no one was disadvantaged by removing your logo you are sending a signal by only removing it from the GCRN.

JD: my poor t member of staff. Logo was a benefit to us, showing we built the website, not to the GCRN. Logo v small

Why was his autistic member of staff being called a transphobe online if he was "transitioning"? I wonder what happened.

🎯

Member of staff here being used as a convenient prop for these people, like disabled and poc.

Witness heading for the spikes.

BC: you were taking action treating GCRN less favourably.

JD: we have the phrase disassociate KMI from. Didn't want to be in middle of controversial discussion

He's admitting it was too controversial so he decided to just get rid of the problem to avoid having to face it

JD: cos of my actions and leadership everyone ended up in a better position. That was due to me

Yes, it's amazing how everybody here is only discriminating against Jo due to the influence of trans and non-binary people they know.

I wish these trans and binary people were witnesses.