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

From NW

NC It might help them erect a big screen, but it's not going to help with the issue in hand
MD It might help people understand what we do. We had this screen we were under pressure to use
NC are you really telling the tribunal this will assist them in any task they are trying to perform

😂

This is comedy gold! 😂

It reminds me of something another eminent barrister in this field told me.

She said that this period is like the first days of the Race Relations Act when employers would blatantly admit discrimination by saying things like, of course we sacked him, he was a lazy n***.

They can't see how prejudiced they are and believe they are right in their actions and that everyone else agrees with them and if they don't then they must be the equivalent of n***-lovers.

From NW

MD I don't know, I've never been to a tribunal
NC another 37 pages is an event management plan for something which took place on 15/16 July
MD it's very similar to what we would do for PBS
NC this is a plan for a different event
MD I couldn't find the doc for PBS

MD as I was under oath and couldn't speak to my team
NC so there is an event management plan for PBS somewhere is there
MD absolutely - we had an event management plan for Shellshock Sessions at the Belfast stories site and it would be a question of changing some minor details

[we are in the process of establishing there is no such plan for PBS because...]
MD events overtook and we cancelled it
NC goes to email from Moyra Lock to SM attaching invoices and a couple of emails by return - you're not copied in any of these emails are you - 24 Jan
MD and 16 Jan

NC you have provided 145 pages of disclosure this morning
MD yes
NC 37 pages of that are the instruction manual for erecting your Big...
... Screen
MD it may be
[they look at it]
NC that material was never going to give the tribunal the slightest assistance had been in the planning since Feb or was dreamed up on 25 June

NC's professionalism is preventing her from saying 'Ah here - you're just taking the piss, aren't you?'😁

Cheeky response from MD
MD is that a question

Guilty by association versus dirty by association - so our peace loving femininist Mark - explain that fudge

From NW

NC there's no sign you were copied in any of these emails
MD no
NC if you didn't contact anyone in the BFF - how did you get your hands on them between yesterday and today
MD I must have had them on my laptop

NC how did you get them there
MD I put them there
NC how
MD I have lots of folders on my laptop
SD it's part of the discovery process
NC it's not for SD to give evidence on the part of his client
J what is the q
NC she told you she's not copied to these emails. she has them

NC but can't get the information she wanted
J where did you go to get these emails
MD two laptops - one old and one new
J were these in folders or emails
MD could have been anything
J how did you... get this
MD I was searching both laptops - but without speaking to the administrator I found it very difficult

NC are you really telling the tribunal this will assist them in any task they are trying to perform
MD I don't know, I've never been to a tribunal
cheeky again, or downright disrespectful?

MD done fucked up

So this was super interesting but it was wafflely so understand NW missed it.

MC said transwomen are transwomen.

He couldn’t bring himself to say Transwoman are women what with the flora and fauna and everyone having a mother.

That what NC picked up when she asked him again. He landed at transwomen are a type of a woman I think.

NC so there is an event management plan for PBS somewhere is there
MD absolutely - we had an event management plan for Shellshock Sessions at the Belfast stories site and it would be a question of changing some minor details
[we are in the process of establishing there is no such plan for PBS because...]
MD events overtook and we cancelled it

So is this MD swearing blind they definitely have the plan, it's somewhere, then admitting they cancelled it so actually there's no plan after all.

Plus shoving in 37 pages of an event plan that has nothing to do with the case and 37 pages of an instruction manual?? 😂 Did she honestly think that was going to get past Naomi?? 😂😂😂😂

But she's ever so incredibly busy and has got a Bigly Screen.

From NW

MD "it was kind of fiddly"
J any more q's NC
NC I think that takes it as far as we need - I am going to take you quickly through this section which doesn't have even arguable relevance
MD I'm sorry it was done very high speed

[NC brings up a discussion note in May 2022 about doing an event at Pride 2022]
MD is giving the tribunal a post-COVID history of BFF's involvement with Pride Belfast (PB)
NC so you're saying in May 2022 it became part of BFF's thinking that there would be an involvement

She sounds completely ridiculous! 🤣

And I still can't get over this very small company with only one employee having a 100k TV!

Yes, I reported a stupid government PSA that used it to the ASA for misogyny, along with a friend. I still have the snotty, dismissive response they sent me in my emails, in which they acknowledge that several other people also complained, but that they didn’t see anything wrong with it.

They probably rely very heavily on volunteers so they can do that.

From NW

in Pride each year going forward.
MD yes and I thought the Rainbow Project in 2022 was something Michele was involved with but she wasn't

NC so in May 2022 you discussed...
MD not that event - an ongoing established relationship with PB
NC we go to email of 29 June - so far as documentary record is concerned this is the only evidence of any plans being made for PBS
MD yes
NC and that's the day after the meeting

In fairness, it is a cinema- related organisation, so they probably would have use for a big screen.

I don't understand the acronyms...

From NW

... you can't remember anything about.
MD if you say so
NC well - if you look at when your 29 June email was sent it's just past midnight - so it's a few hours after your meeting you can't remember anything about [with the incoming co-chairs from memory]

Advertising Standards Authority and Public Service Announcement

From NW

NC how common is it for you to send emails to working partners after midnight
MD very - since the pandemic especially - people send emails at any time
NC lets look at it - it's an invitation to put the Big Screen up at Pride - does it jog your memory about your conversation

... earlier that day.
MD no I'm not trying to be evasive - I just don't remember
NC and you say it's a "tight turnaround" - this has all the hallmarks of something set up in a tearing rush
MD I wouldn't say a tearing rush but it we were heading towards it quite quickly
NC you...

Fair enough and good point!

From NW

.. said this had been months in the planning. Where are the emails from you to SM saying come on we need to hurry this along
MD we are in an open plan office we have lots of conversations
NC the reality is - this doc you disclosed with a load of irrelevant info that C could

is the most compelling evidence [sorry] that the C could wish for that you cooked up this event in order to orchestrate a pile on
MD I don't accept that
NC that was a thoroughly dishonest way to behave wasn't it
MD no
NC you saw how the pile on affected her
MD I supported her...