Sara Morrison vs Belfast Film Festival

[NorthernIrishFeminist]

Employers seem to be slow learners when it comes to women's rights! There’s another employment tribunal case being brought by a woman who attended and took the microphone at a Let Women Speak event in Belfast last year and has been treated very badly by her employer Belfast Film Festival as a result.

Looks like we’re going to have to keep gardening until they get the message.

disclaimer. I don’t know Sara and have no connection to BFF I’m just a woman who likes donating to causes that make a difference

MD I'll have to go and check this
NC you're making this up, aren't you
MD [laughs] No! I actually find that quite rude

Laughing and accusing NC of being rude? careful, now!😄

From NW

NC you don't mention the Pride on the Big Screen Event in that message to the co-chairs, do you?
In your WS you mention the Pride in the Big Screen event, but not at the time
MD I was concerned we were going to lose a sponsor
NC if what you say is true that he raised a concern re the PBS event, why you didn't report this back to the co-chairs

NC but he's a sponsor, he's an owner of the pub, and it was where the event was going to take place, so if he wasn't happy, the event wasn't going to happen, was it
MD he sponsored the power supply - the event was going to take place at the Belfast Stories site - he didn't say...

From NW
it wouldn't happen.
NC you don't tell them this is threatening BPS
MD I didn't feel at that point it was a threat to the event
NC presumably it would be quite an important event in your calendar - a big deal
MD it was an event
NC there'd be a lot of work...

... involved - SM would do gfx for it, you'd have to plan to get the screen up, you'd need to advertise it
MD we'd need to put an advert in the brochure if we were on time, use our own channels
NC I'm trying to suggest there's quite a bit of work to do - so can you be...

... specific about what plans had already been formulated by end June
MD we had applied for a licence to the council, we had an event delivery plan
NC written down somewhere?
MD we did a similar event at the same site, so we had it all done, we just needed a name change...

Witness very combative.

Taken a brief break for instructions, so 2 enterprising term are attempting to fix the door squeak with lip balm.

From NW

J asks to clarify the event
MD it was the Docs Ireland event in June - so it was a good use of resources... sorry I'm finding it really distracting you...

... keep looking behind you and nodding [MD is addressing Simon Chambers] - they both are [she appears to be addressing Charlott Elves]
J are you taking instruction from your client
[SM is in the room]

SC I'll try to be more discreet.
J Do we need to rise so you can take instruction?
SD perhaps this would be a good time for the mid afternoon break - we've been going 45 mins
[all agree. J rises]

From NW

I am going to end this thread here and start a Day 3 Session 3 thread.

Afternoon session posts are here:
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1988613143103451283.html

It is interesting how the appearance of concern and care can mask the complete opposite. There was no concern for SM expressed in that email, it was more an opportunity to assert a position and use authority to stir up a more antagonistic response. Just because it was couched in gentle and friendly forms of expression doesn't mask intent but it clearly signals 'I am a nice person' which is rather wholly contradicted by the intent of the message.

Also, I suspect MD was not really wanting to deal with the employment issues that would arise out of any challenge so she was happer to just stick her head in the sand until MC triggered the board. Then she would have become worried about her own job if she didn't show by her actions that she approved of removing the person with wrong think. MC is in quite a powerful position in relation to MD.

Also the idea the cultural events have to show solidarity with fellow citizens is daft because he doesn't mean that. He means we should show solidarity with an ideology I believe in. Imagine if, in Belfast, he was making that claim about, say, a particular religious belief. Before they got themselves in the state of being so determined to rid themselves of her through process and this assertion that she refused to work on certain projects and which represents gross misconduct is interesting because based on the evidence so far she was encouraged not to do them which is very different from a refusal to do them they should have just said, if you are speaking at events please don't admonish groups you might need to work with in your capacity as outreach officer. It might have merited an admonishment and constitute a warning and if she did it again the next stage would be more serious but they decided that the guilt by association was too much for them to handle and think they have get out of jail free card because process.

Don't know where 'term' came from there. Should read 'women'.

From NW

This thread is Day 3 Session 3 of Morrison v BFF at Belfast Employment Tribunal.

Michele Devlin (MD), CEO of Belfast Film Festival (BFF) is being cross-examined (xe) by Naomi Cunningham (NC).

Other common abbreviations:
PBS - Pride on the Big Scree
MC - Mark Cousins (BFF outgoing chair in 2023)
MTM - Marie-Therese McGivern (incoming co-chair of BFF in 2023)
LBD - Lisa Barros D'sa (incoming co-chair of BFF in 2023)
LM - Laurence McKeown (founder of BFF)

This disclaimer applies: ALL TWEETS ARE SUMMARIES AND CHARACTERISATIONS OF WHAT IS BEING SAID. NOTHING IS A DIRECT QUOTE UNLESS IT IS IN "DIRECT QUOTES"

This has been a longer than expected break. All the lawyers are in place, but the witness isn't. Judge and panel still absent

Darlington fans may be wish to add to their dossiers that A Concern has made an appearance over here, too.

No Rumblings, as yet.

From NW

Witness is back. SD is not here now...

Did it work?

From NW

J is sitting
J has this document just come to light?
[a doc is being shared to the legal teams]
NC Ms D - the purpose of this doc - pls look at the top right 2nd page - it's the official 2022 Belfast Pride (BP) brochure. It mentions Rainbow Project which you said was a BFF

From NW

... event and it was in the BeanBag cinema -
MD it was in the beanbag cinema which we own
NC you hired the venue to them - it was not your event or it would say so
MD sometimes it happens sometimes it doesn't
NC and your meeting with Pedro Donald on 5 May was not about PBS...

From NW

.. it was about Doc Ireland
MD yes
NC why if PBS had been in the planning since Feb you only asked for the contact list on 25 June
MD think I asked for it before
NC so you'd asked for it before
MD I think we'd discussed it at meetings
NC minuted?
MD I think they are

MD sometimes they're not
NC if this was in the planning since Feb 2023 there would be plenty of documentary evidence you can look for overnight and bring in tomorrow
MD yes absolutely
NC the deadline for getting into Pride Belfast brochure was 15 June

MD if you say so
NC and there was no PBS advert in the Pride Belfast brochure - why was the deadline missed
MD it was SM's job to do it and she hadn't done it

NC you line manage SM don't you
MD yes
NC so there should be lots of emails from you chasing her saying that she needs to get on with it

NC as SM has it that after clearing up from Docs Ireland you suggested there should be an involvement in Pride Belfast and both SM and Mary Lyndsay said they didn't think it should happen
MD I disagreed
NC how did the convo go
MD we had an imperative to use the Big Screen...

... which cost in excess of £100k and I thought it was an optimum time to do something - it was easy - it had a ready made audience - and we had a window to use the screen

Some wool has arrived in the post.

Be right back.

Ooh! And the Wine Society's Christmas catalogue!

I'll only be a minute.

Promise.

From NW

NC so sounds like there isn't much disagreement about the content of this convo - the difference is that they say this was the first they heard of it and you say this had been in the planning since Feb
MD seems to be yes

NC your account isn't that you aren't saying come on Docs Ireland is over we need to get cracking on Pride - you seem to be saying you were floating an idea
MD I don't accept that

NC there's all the difference in the world between how to utilise the Big Screen and having a plan to do a Pride associated event at end July
MD I don't quite know what you're getting at

NC in answer to the q about having a plan...
MD there was a plan in place! people's reluctance to do the work was also a factor...

From NW

[NC takes us to Mary Lyndsay's (ML) iv as part of the previous investigation]
NC
KP: The email, that had been sent out about the collaborative event, you had mentioned it had
never been discussed. Is this something you would normally have been involved in?
ML: The docs Ireland event had just ended, if an event was taking place 3-4 weeks from that, I
thought I would have heard about it, discussing whether this was a good idea to do or not,
given what was going on. It was news to me about this new event. I wasn’t aware of it. I would
have been part of the planning. I feel I should have been made aware of it, but that is a
different matter separate to this; but just to be clear it wouldn’t have been my role to send
out this email so I wasn't involved in this aspect.

NC so claimant is clear that she didn't hear about it till June and ML hadn't heard about it either
MD that's not true
NC so they're lying
MD no I'm not saying that - they may have forgotten and we had convos about using the Big Screen and the Belfast Stories site in the warm summer months

NC so the two team members who would expect to be involved
MD they would have had convos about how to use the screen
NC specifically PBS
MD convos about utilising the BS in summer months with ready-made audiences

From NW

NC but nothing had been done about
MD we had permission for the site an event licence and the use of the site
NC so - generic
MD we could have put teletubbies on - it didn't matter.

NC this was a period of downtime after the festival - you and SM were only full time members of staff
MD yep
NC and you both went on holiday, so the BBF was effectively closed
MD not at all we had BFF people on site
NC but it was not realistic to gear up to Pride Belfast...

The wool is lovely.

I've been waiting for it to arrive to continue DH's Christmas stocking.

I'm resisting the temptation to get the knitting out immediately.

From NW

... at the end of July was it
MD not at all - a phone call to the screen people and the person working on it ready to go...
NC Okay - things might change after you bring in a load of documentation pertaining to PBS from Feb to June in tomorrow, but the only doc evidence we have

You are going above and beyond Myrtle - not knitting, ignoring the wine catalogue... much appreciated!😄

..maybe you could transcribe your wine catalogue, it would be more interesting than this line of qq , I confess I'm getting a bit bored😒