"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 4

[ThreeWordHarpy]

Thread 1, 7-Oct to 23-Oct; pre-hearing discussion, KD (day 1 of evidence) and BH (day 2).
Thread 2, 23-Oct to 28-Oct; BH (day 2), CH, JP, MG (day 3&4), TH, SS, ST, LL (day 4), JS, AT (day 5)
Thread 3, 28-Oct to 29-Oct, AT (day 5&6), TA (day 6)

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. The hearing started on October 20th, with evidence starting on October 22nd and is scheduled to last 3 weeks. To view the hearing online requests for access had to be made by October 17th. The hearing is being live tweeted by Tribunal Tweets who have background to this case on their substack. An alternative to X is to use Nitter: nitter.net/tribunaltweets or nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets

The Judge made clear at the start of the public hearing on Day 1 that only TT or press have permission to tweet. If online observers see/hear something in the court that isn’t reported by TT, we don’t mention it until the next time there’s a break. This is a very cautious approach to avoid any accusations of “live reporting” on MN. Commentary on the content of TT tweets is fine as soon as they’re posted on X.

Key people:
C/Ns - Claimants, the Darlington nurses
R/T/Trust - Respondent, County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust
J/EJ – Judge/Employment Judge Seamus Sweeney
NF - Niazi Fetto KC, barrister for claimants
SC - Simon Cheetham, KC, barrister for respondents
RH - Rose Henderson, trans identifying nurse
CG – Clare Gregory, ward manager
SW - Sue Williams, NHS Trust HR
KD – Karen Danson, first claimant to give evidence.
BH – Bethany Hutchison, claimant
AH – Alistair Hutchison, husband of Bethany
CH – Carly Hoy, claimant
JP – Jane Peveller, claimant
MG – Mary Anne (aka Annice) Grundy, claimant
TH – Tracy Hooper, claimant
SS – Siobhan Sinclair, witness for the claimants, retired from Trust
ST – Sharron Trevarrow, witness for the claimants, retired from Trust, former housekeeper and wellbeing officer
LL – Lisa Lockey, claimant
JP – Professor Jo Phoenix, expert witness
JS – Jane Shields, witness for the claimants
AT - Andrew Thacker, witness for the respondents, NHS trust Head of HR
TA – Tracy Atkinson, witness for the respondents, NHS trust HR.

The Great Unanswerable Questions of our time!

Omg yes finally 🙌

It seems that without anyone else prompting him J has some idea of the concept of Pete.

I like to think that ET judges have some sort of Whatsapp chat (not dissimilar to the Benidorm chat group, but for their batshit ET's).

I am assuming that they are all excellent poler players because I would find it hard not to eye roll at some of these answers.

Oh my God. AM failing to answer the judge's questions is like a dense but well-meaning ten year old boy going through a failed test paper with a tutor. He doesn't know anything and he's a bit sad, but there's no sense that he believes he reasonably should be able to answer...

What a bloody swizz HR is!

TT

J I know you didn’t develop the policy, but you’ve been living with it. It begins ‘the moment a person informs us’ guide for managers. Things a manager should consider - the point at which a person can use SS or gender neutral and the choice should be theirs. Which on paper seems different to the point at which the Trust recognises the start of the process. Does it follow from that point, the person can then use the facility? Is there any process by which a person is recognised? What is meant by living a life in that gender?
AM don’t know
J what does implementation actually mean? You can’t help us.
AM no

J given your seniority how you came to be appointed as a welfare officer?
AM I was brought on after a press release re Rose - (unclear)

It is money for old rope, except the rope would be more useful.

Sorry for duplicate post, tried to edit and it reposted... 😡

Ooh Jillian Bailey tomorrow morning. Wonder if we will get unfettered genderwoo.

J given your seniority how you came to be appointed as a welfare officer?

J given your seniority how you came to be appointed as a welfare officer?

Fixed it for him...

TT

SC are you able to help us with when an impact assessment should be done? By who?
AM the policy developer and other group checks and balances.

J Gillian Bailey is the next witness. We’ll start tomorrow morning.

Thank you @NotNatacha for the TT posts!

TT's final tweets of the afternoon.

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1983920259426873452.html

From TT

J I know you didn’t develop the policy, but you’ve been living with it. It begins ‘the moment a person informs us’ guide for managers. Things a manager should consider - the point at which a person can use SS or gender neutral and the choice should be theirs. Which on paper seems different to the point at which the Trust recognises the start of the process. Does it follow from that point, the person can then use the facility? Is there any process by which a person is recognised?
What is meant by living a life in that gender?
AM don’t know
J what does implementation actually mean? You can’t help us.
AM no

😲😲😲😲

That's right, we've no idea what it is or what it even means, but a man wanted to get in the ladies so we just went yeah bruv fill your boots. Err sorry, we mean bruvina.

The Respondents' barrister appears to have given up the case.

After you Claude? Was it twins never born?

Thank you for your kind words for this apprentice retweeter.

This isn’t the Darlington hospital floor plan I’m afraid. That’s Durham Hospital, which is in the same trust but not the building these events took place in. (I’m unfortunately familiar with paeds A&E and the horror involved in a visit!)

After you Claude?

Exacerly!

‘Bruvina’ 😂

Nat you've been amazing thank you.
I have got back to back meetings now til 5pm, nipping on to say huge thank yous, wims.

You sound very efficient and unlike NHS Darlington as we've seen it, if you can fit several meetings into the next 44 minutes.

I'd add a congratulatory bunch of flowers, but the icons MN offers are very limited.

Be careful. You're doing so well that people will say 'you're a natural' and we all know what that means. Seriously, thanks for keeping me informed and making me more efficient. Five pages of boring stuff, then nip over here makes me focus.