Prof Jo Phoenix vs The OU - Employment Tribunal Thread 8

[ickky]

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

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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.

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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
NatS - Natalie Starkey, Outreach & Public Engagement Officer Sch Physical Sciences, 2019-22
HBC - Helen Bowes-Catton, Lecturer Social Research Methods
JD - John Domingue, Prof of Computing Science, Director KMi, 2015-22
LW - Louise Westmarland, Prof of Criminology, Co-Deputy Head SPC, 2018-21, Current Head SPC
RH - Richard Holliman, Prof Engaged Research, Head School Environment, Earth & Ecosystem Sciences, 2019-22. Member of Investigation Panel investigating the C’s grievance
CT - Catherine Tomlinson, Senior Student Advisor
DD - Dr Deborah Drake, Senior Lecturer Criminology, Head of SPC 2018-21😇
SD - Shaun Daley, Head OU’s Resourcing Hub. Head Strategic Resources, Co-Chair OU’s LGBT+ Staff Network
SJ - Samantha Jacobson, Employee Relations Case Manager
NS - Nicola Snarey, Assoc Lecturer Eng Language - This witness did not give evidence.

Witness for JP:

SE - Professor Sarah Earle, Head of the HWSRA

Tribunal Tweets - https://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)

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

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

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

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

Thread 4
https://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

Thread 6
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4921308-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-6

Thread 7
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4922765-prof-jo-phoenix-vs-the-ou-employment-tribunal-thread-7

Thanks as well - in awe as always

Thank you to all who have commented, it's been an education. Best wishes to Jo Phoenix in getting on with life and being happy again.

Thank you @ickky for marvellous thread mistress-ship, and to all the other commentators who kept those of us unable to dial in (or keep up!) updated.

And thank you to Jo for having the ovaries of steel to stand up to these craven, bullying appeasers.

Thank god for the Forstater Judgment.

I liked Ben using Allison’s case to support the time delay being reasonable. Basically I’ve successfully argued this before at ET.

Thanks for this thread and all who contributed!

Can anyone tell me what 'WG' means, please?

Yep, thanks to @ickky and everyone else who's been updating and/or diverting us with tales of cheese and biscuits while we've been WFTCHTJ.

I'd like to add my thanks too, to ickky, to all the wonderful women on here commentating and making excellent and often very witty contributions and last, but by no means least, to Jo herself for having the strength to take this case forward knowing just how difficult it would be for her. Jo, you are a very courageous woman and I hope and trust that the outcome of this case will be in your favour it would be an absolute travesty if not, take care Jo and all the best for the future.

Thank you ickky for the seamless thread management and TT links and to everyone for their insight and contributions. I know we are all behind Jo on this and therefore biased but I hope the tribunal had the same simultaneous wtf reactions in their heads that we did on the threads.

Thank-yous from me too!

I was also looking back over this thoughtful -inciteful -good humoured -empathetic commentary and wondering if there is a similar thread somewhere between those supporting the OU and its case?

The companionship of the women here has been wonderful thing.

Working group.

I believe Jo still needs more carrots as does Pilgrim Tucker and another woman who’s name eludes me at the moment, all deserving of cultivation

I listened to the 'Savage Minds' podcast referred to in the hearing, but couldn't for the life of me work out what was offensive (or whatever the claim was) about it. Was it Julian Vigo saying Stonewall is homophobic? Many see that as the absolute truth.

The bee puns were irritating, but not as irritating as pretending that an account of what was essential a personal campaign was repurposed as perfectly acceptable because , look, we have written it as though it is an academic paper, with proper references and all. So we are not just mean girls, we are academic mean girls with letters after our names.

Fabulous teamwork on display here. Thank you to all involved for your insight and speed-typing. Would have been entirely at sea without the explanations.

Jo's alleged offensiveness was laughing at the interviewers comments about sucking female cock and also being mean to Stonewall.

Thank you, of course!

I've clearly got Friday Brain 😂

Another reminder that Amy Hamm's hearing is on Monday, from 6 pm BST l think. There's a thread with a link for anyone who wants to follow, I'll bump it.

I don't think I'll be able to follow it live and as not on twitterX I'm really feeling how access to that has been limited.

WG is working group.

Thanks also for the cheese chat everyone. And I've scheduled your namesake Vegemiteandhoneyontoast for later. 😋

Thanks Ickky for all your hard work. 👏

I have just caught up (damn the fact I had to work this afternoon to hell!).

Thank you Ikky, thank you all on all these threads and thank you to TT. I was explaining this all yesterday to someone who had never heard of Open Democracy and TT and was struck again at how brilliant it is and how amazing the volunteers are.

Thank you Ickky, for both the explanation above and all your work on this.

I'm now wondering how Jo was supposed to react, according to the Great and the Good - deny all the exhortations to suck lady dick, when we have the receipts, or defend Stonewall from an obvious truth? Some things for me to mull over.

Agree with this. I'm going to miss you all. I thought Jo's whatsapp group had a tinge of mumsnet about it, though slightly more restrained and less cheese (although maybe Ben didn't read that bit out).

I managed to miss the very end because of inconveniently timed school pick up! Very grateful for being able to read the final statements on here and TT.

Thank you all and especially @ickky who deserves all the cheese and some sort of services to Mumsnetters award.

The bee puns were irritating, but not as irritating as pretending that an account of what was essential a personal campaign was repurposed as perfectly acceptable because , look, we have written it as though it is an academic paper, with proper references and all. So we are not just mean girls, we are academic mean girls with letters after our names.

YY. The bee puns/metaphors were just an extra level of wanky on top of that. It's a singularly wanky paper.

I honestly don't know how TT do it. I can type fairly fast but couldn't keep up at all. They must be super fast. I wonder if they work in teams?