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

is "during Pride" on it?

In Canada, this consumes 4 months in a year (I suspect it was supposed to be 3 but it's become 4 because of the handy "June to September").

https://women-gender-equality.canada.ca/en/pride-season.html

Note the additional events in April and May.

https://pride.flagshop.com/pride-events/

There are not enough eye roll emoji's in the world for this @RethinkingLife

What is happening to Canada, not just this stuff but the euthanasia and the big drug problems.

The conclusion of ignoring things 'during Pride Month', leads us to the girl in the Loudon County school, who was raped by a boy wearing a skirt.

And the school didn't want to deal with it, because it was 'during Pride Month'.
They gaslighted the poor girl, and moved him to another school.

Another bullshit phrase lifted wholesale from America.

Give it time.

Thanks. I hope the Judge and Panel heard him!

I live in Manchester, so the big Pride event is August Bank Holiday. My local library still has on their website a list of books for Pride. Excellent commentary thanks to all of you. I'm in stitches at some of the comments

And the school didn't want to deal with it, because it was 'during Pride Month'.
They gaslighted the poor girl, and moved him to another school.

He went on to Rape another girl, or was that the School he was in before Loudon?

Very scary indeed.

Thank you to all the commentators, had a family emergency to deal with this afternoon. Sorry I missed the rest of LW, and I was anticipating RH. But it does sound like a slam dunk for Jo that they didn’t follow their own grievance procedure, shame the lawyer-given training didn’t cover that with RH. I mentioned on another thread that my appeal to HR on another matter succeeded only because they hadn’t followed procedure and not on the facts (I was still in the right but they had no grounds to argue back once they realised I was now automatically eligible to take them to an ET according to the applicable legislation). So on that point of law at least, she should win.

onwards to DD tomorrow, in the waiting room nice and early in case it’s Justin clerking again.

I bollocked DH for this yesterday - he's got a trapped nerve in his shoulder, not fucking flu. He is now using a normal voice at a normal level instead of mumbling and groaning every time he opens his mouth. FFS.

tbh, I couldn't work out the number of incidents but definitely > 1 (if you include sodomy, sexual battery, kidnap etc. which I do in my dinosaur way).

https://www.loudoun.gov/specialgrandjury

I hope I have this right, there are 4 witnesses for tomorrow - Daley, Jacobson, Tomlinson and Drake.

Tomlinson is the witness who is unwell.

After DD I would think Jacobson would be brief but important as it is likely their role was to ensure procedures followed.

I think it was the school after Loudon County, but I'm not 100%.

When does it end? I thought it was today but must have misread it

Friday, i think.

It is an improvement. You can at least draw out the obstacles to women’s progression, so often pregnancy, maternity and sex-related. It also allows you to address the related barriers transmen face. The earlier version only allowed you look at gender. What a transwoman and a pregnant woman have in common is anyone’s guess.

Tomorrow's supposed to be the last day of witnesses, Thursday's a day "off" (I assume reading for the Panel, preparing closing submissions for the KCs) and Friday is closing submissions IIRC

So now we know what the support animals are for. Eating homework, draft letters and old mobile phones.

We have shedloads of covid tests in our house and a special offer from Evri couriers.

Just saying...

Even my "FFS, how have I caught covid for the first time" mates seem okay enough to sustain a 30 minute phone call/online thingy.

I suppose they just aren't special enough.

My DH has a 'sick face', which is incredibly annoying.

I have never worked in FE, but I have worked for the NHS and they were incredibly lax on terms of keeping to dates in terms of disciplinaries/grievances. They seemed to justify it by being incredibly detailed and referring to copius amounts of policies/professional codes etc.

Shortly after starting, I was supporting a formal meeting in a HR capacity and I expected to eaten alive by the union rep about timing, but got very gently chastised instead. The delays really was cultural.

Not sure if university the same. But not a good look for the OU to be so late in hearing the grievance. There really is no excuse for an organisation of that size, with the level of resources they have.

And it seems picked a completely incompetent and already prejudiced individual to run the process Hellomynameisnt.

Yeah, good luck with that…

Oh but you have to refer to 17th May as IDAHOBIT, because it's just bloody hilarious.

Jesus wept.

Still, I hope everyone is genuflecting at the appropriate altar for this week’s Genderfluid Visibility Week.

I see it's currently 'genderfluid visibility' week.