"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread

[ThreeWordHarpy]

Five nurses working at Darlington Memorial Hospital have filed a legal case suing their employer, an NHS trust, for sexual harassment and sex discrimination. The nurses object to sharing the women’s changing facilities with a male colleague, “Rose”, who:

• identifies as female
• has not undergone any physical or hormonal transition and has full male genitalia
• has cited inclusivity policies
• is backed by the trust’s HR department
• has been granted access to a single-sex changing room for women.

The NHS trust’s HR department dismissed the nurses’ concerns, stating they should “broaden their mindset” and “be educated”. More details can be found at Sex Matters

The hearing is due to start on October 20th and is scheduled to last 3 weeks. To view the hearing online email: [email protected] [[email protected]] requesting remote access to the case of 2501192/2024 Hutchinson and others Vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust, starting 20th October. Also include your full name and your role in the hearing (eg member of the public or observer). Note, it is likely you will need the same full name and email address to log into the hearing, and the name will be visible to other observers.

The hearing will be live tweeted by https://x.com/tribunaltweets. An alternative to Twitter is to use Nitter: nitter.net/tribunaltweets or nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets. Tribunal Tweets have more background to this case on their substack, including links to their coverage of the earlier hearings.

In earlier hearings reported at http://archive.today/nh5v9, the claimants were supported by the Christian Legal Centre and represented by Pavel Stroilov (solicitor) and Bruno Quentaville (barrister). The respondents were represented by Simon Cheetham KC. We do not know yet if the same representation will be in place for the October hearing

Background information from Christian Concern who are supporting the nurses via the CLC.

Have people noted this from the instructions?

3. How to test you can access CVP before the hearing

Use the CVP Test link – (use “test_call” as conference alias as shown below)
https://join.meet.video.justice.gov.uk/HMCTS/#/?conference=testcall

This test link will not work if you are using the ‘Pexip Infinity Connect’ app.

WFTCHTJ on app

Also this:

If you have any problems connecting to CVP, call our national helpline on 0330
8089405 as soon as possible. Calls are taken Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.

I’m in, but I had to select video and audio. Selecting observer got me a black screen only. Have covered over my camera and am on mute. Now WFTCHTJ.

I will attempt the impossible and live paste here and Allison Bailey's appeal. I may be disturbed by medical professionals etc.

I chose video and audio on safari - the as soon as I was WFTCHTJ I turned off my video and audio.

Does WFTCHTJ look like the court coat of arms and the blue warning box? Should I have any sound?

Thank you, Myrtle. Please don't overtax yourself, though.

Yes and yes.

From TT

We will shortly be live tweeting day 1 of evidence from the hearing of Ms B Hutchison & others v County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust being held at Newcastle Employment Tribunal.

Hmm. I have visual and no audio.

edit - I have fixed it. Thanks!

I had that with Firefox. I got both with Chrome.

Evidence concluded?

From TT

A group of nurses from Darlington Memorial Hospital, are bringing this ET against their employers alleging sexual harassment and sex discrimination.

It concerns the Trust’s policy of allowing a male colleague, identifying as a woman named Rose Henderson, to use the female changing room.

The nurses argue that sharing the changing facilities with Henderson has caused them distress. One nurse, a survivor of sexual abuse, reported experiencing panic attacks.

After raising concerns with hospital management, they were informed they needed to be “re-educated” to be more 'inclusive' and offered an office space to change in instead of the female changing room.

Our full coverage can be found at
https://
tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/eight-nurses
-v-county-durham-and

We report what we hear in good faith but do not provide a verbatim record of proceedings.

Abbreviations:
C/Ns - Claimants - the Darlington nurses
NF - Niazi Fetto KC, barrister for Claimants
MP - Michael Phillips, solicitor for claimants

PS - Pavel Stroilov, C’s solicitor, preliminary hearing
R/T/Trust - Respondent, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
SC - Simon Cheetham, KC, barrister for respondents
J/REJ - Regional Employment Judge Robertson

EJ - Employment Judge
ET - Employment Tribunal
RH - Rose Henderson, trans identifying nurse
DMH/H/Hospital - Darlington Memorial Hospital
SH - sexual harassment
SD - sex discrim
SA - sexual abuse
PA - panic attack
HM - hospital management
TG - transgender
CR/CF - changing room or facilities

We anticipate a 10am start today although delays to proceedings are not unusual.

thanks @MyrtleLion - you are some lioness - recovering and doing two tribunal tweets copy and paste!

I keep getting disconnected from the meeting! Anyone else?

@IDareSay these systems work best on chrome. On safari there are often issues with sound etc

Still WFTCHTJ

Still WFTCHTJ. I'm watching NC nailing it in Kelly in the meantime.

Not much else to do to be honest!

From TT

We are still waiting in the remote access waiting room.

The cause of the delay is unknown but we'll update you as soon as we have any more information.

In!

I'm in

I'm in

I'm in, I can see the court but no sound