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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Email [email protected]
Header should read
URGENT CURRENT CASE - Public Access Request - J Phoenix - The Open University - 3322700/2021

Ask for access link and pin and please give your name and address in the email as they check when you connect to the tribunal.

The clerk will ask you (in a private remote room) to put your camera on to verify, this involves looking at you, but no ID is needed. You may turn off your camera after this pointless and unnecessary process.

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

BC:focus on my qs. I'll break it down

But his speshul trans member of staff. 🙄

Whom the world obviously revolved around. 🤨

Yes and yes to the toddler explanation

That is coming up repeatedly - the excuse that they had to signal bias and prejudice against any GC people or information to their TQ+ connections. Which they don't seem to realise betrays they see society in terms of the people who matter and the people who don't.

I wonder whether today's clerk's grumpiness is merely related to the difficulty of handling online access to a tribunal, or is exacerbated by the clerk's feelings about this particular case? No way to tell, of course.

Did he?

I have family members for whom it's true that they worked in CERN with TBL and the internet wouldn't be the same (unless, you know, someone else had done the assigned work) etc.

That makes them sovereign at the kitchen table. When there's nobody else there. And pretty much only if they're thinking about early messaging protocols and what went on to be the first web browsers.

I had to go to the office yesterday, so catching up this morning. Is this guy really saying that he basically chucked the GCRN website off his hosting (funded by the OU) with nowhere else to go, put out a public statement affirming their trans allegiance, and tweeted, tagging the GCN to say that they'd been booted? And that this wasn't discrimination, despite him doing nothing of the sort to any other network hosted by them at the time. Fucking hell.

JD: tweet - we support ac freedom we do not support the group

BC: you know that will be tagged in the GCRN twitter thread

JD: I'm not sure I knew

Did he say upthread that the trans member of staff in his department had been accused of transphobia or did I mishear?

Yes, we couldn’t just move them, we had to blowtorch the place where they'd been so that everyone could see the smoking ruins and dance round them in glee.

I presume this person whose welfare was so important could be identified to somebody like the Judge to prove they exist. Not a construct?

Yes! But it is not discrimination according to JD.

There can't be this number of idiotic adults who genuinely agree to sterilising children and ensuring they're anorgasmic.

this is why these cases are so bloody important. Every single time women win the right to talk, more people listen.

No - he didn't. Sorry to be misleading. I was just saying that I thought he might. Though now he's saying he didn't realise that the tweet would be inc in the GCRN feed

KMI tweeted "we don't like you" to GCN?

I think he's paraphrasing the statement that KMI "don't support the GCRN."

JD: didn't want to lose the Athena swan position

Did he say upthread that the trans member of staff in his department had been accused of transphobia or did I mishear?

Yes that's how I heard it, but I don't think he went into detail.

It a frighteningly ethics-free zone, considering his supposed area of expertise is AI.

Ben, Athena Swan did until recently ask universities to explain how they ensure that all their staff understand that sex is a spectrum, or words to that effect... contacting AS would not have helped him understand he shouldn't discriminate against GCRN!

Witness signed the open letter - OMG

Yes. I heard it as being accused as such on the internet,

Lol. Mr World Wide Web Experttttt

It was because the trans member worked in the KMI dept and therefore must be a transphobe.

I'm really irritated that Athena Swan, a scheme originally set up to benefit women in male oriented workplaces, is being used as an excuse to discriminate against female centred feminism.