"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.

No coincidence that the silhouette front and centre of the sign helpfully posted by nauticant is of a man.

Edit for typo

Seems to me that we've moved from "well no one else complained" to "too many of you complained, you must be making it up".

What's the ideal number of complainants? Answer any number will always be seen to be wrong.

Is RH a respondent or just a witness? I think a lot of Jane Russell's difficulties came about through the conflict of interest between DU and NHS Fife.

Is that an 'official' (for want of a better word) NHS poster, or just something somebody knocked up on their laptop? Do we know?

Witness only.

Claimants:
1. Ms B Hutchinson
2. Ms K Danson
3. Ms J Bradbury
4. Ms M A Grundy
5. Ms L Lockley
6. Ms C Hoy
7. Ms T A Hooper
8. Ms J Peveller

Respondent:
County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

It will be interesting to see the R's approach with the other nurses. SC has already indicated he may not have any questions for Bethany Hutchison. So no allegations of paranoia or spreading mean girl gossip for her.

Will any of them be accused of bigotry? Or has that one run out of steam?

Just been going through today's witness on Tribunal Tweets, which has given me goosebumps.

How could the NHS management not believe that a woman, a nurse even, was repeatedly asked if she was changing by a man in his boxers?! Do they live on another planet?!

They even were aware that she was very distressed afterwards, and it understandably lead to a worsening of her mental health...

I have searched Google images for

"inclusive changing space nhs image"
"inclusive changing space image"
"inclusive changing space"

and the only image of the poster is the photograph of the poster on the door. If it were an official NHS poster used in more than one hospital, or even more than one changing room in a single hospital, I would expect to see the image itself, or a photograph of itnon different doors.

I conclude it was knocked up on a printer for the express purpose of being used on that door in that hospital.

Reported on BBC News now. The article makes it clear that Rose is male and female pronouns are avoided

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cge51zwz384o.amp

Great detective work, Inspector Myrtle! It's an interesting point.

I'd like to know if it's laminated. Not that that's conclusive as lamination can lend an official air to any random old rubbish. There's a fuckton of sellotape that's for sure.

Interesting - every other article on the local news home page has a byline, but not on this one. It's not attributed to an individual reporter.

Ooh, top detective work @MyrtleLion! I hope you are sleuthing from the comfort of your own armchair by now.

I think the "do not remove this sign" in red capitals both top and bottom of the sign tells a story.

Complete with plumbing, no doubt.

(Late on parade, I had to go out earlier)

Nope. Still sitting on the hospital bed. DH should arrive shortly. Once I am in clothes rather than a gown, I might feel more human.

SC used Rose multiple times in same sentence at one point. I did a double take and checked it was still the R's counsel as it sounded so odd.

Just a quick thank you from me @MyrtleLion for the pasting of TT. I was all set up to watch this morning but had to do other things just as the access got properly going. Have just caught up! Interesting start

Apologies if this has been mentioned, but amongst the supporters for the nurses outside the courtroom is… Sandie Peggie!

https://x.com/iainmasterton/status/1981008005861888059

Oh! That’s made me a bit teary! How lovely!

The sleuthing is even more impressive in those circumstances! Thank you for everything you've done today.

Also, you complained in the wrong way (although we’re not backing down and saying if you’d done it the right way you get your CR back).

Or there will be a world of trouble for you…

.... because it is entirely right and good that a man is wandering around the women's changing rooms in his boxers

That's grim. Lovely NHS logo to let all the wims know that their employer thinks they should get their tits out for the lads.