"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 6

[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&7)
Thread 4, 29-Oct to 31-Oct; TA, AM (day 7) JB (day 8)
Thread 5, 31-Oct to 04-Nov; JB (day 8), SW, CG, JR (day 9)

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, NHS 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, NHS trust Head of HR
TA – Tracy Atkinson, NHS trust HR.
AM – Andrew Moore, NHS Head of Workforce Experience
JB – Jillian Bailey, NHS Workforce Experience Manager
AT – Anna Telfer, NHS Deputy Director of Nursing
SW – Sandra Watson, Matron for General and Elective Surgery
JR – Jodie Robinson, manager of Rose

Sound but no visual.

The names of those seven people are not given in the Trust's (open) minutes, so speculation on my part, but (and I hope I am wrong) given what this witness has said about confidentiality, I suspect they will be disciplined for giving interviews to newspapers.

Good point! Sharp as a tack - a gold thumbtack, obvs😄

From TT

SN = Susan Newton, external investigator

[We return but no visuals]
NF I'm taking u to another correction of Miss Naylors piece [reads re bio sex and husbands] U put her down as withdrawn
Yes
NF Were u shaw she'd done this?
Yes
NF To p436. An email from another sig

Any idea why the judge was rushing NF? I thought he'd said he wanted 4 hours for this witness (and I don't recall anybody else being lined up for today).

I can't get my head around the fact that there are some highly paid staff sat together watching the entire tribunal (their combined salaries must hover around £1/4M at least).

I think counsel must be having an argument about something. Either that or they are looking at a copy of Racing Post and placing their bets for this afternoon's racing.

I was thinking that he doesn't want the claimants barrister, who for some reason I think of as Shere Khan from the jungle book, to ask certain questions because he wants to keep what he calls 'on track.'

Maybe he needed a poo. Would explain the long break too.

The argument before the break was that NF shouldn't be able to talk about non-complainants but now, seemingly after some kind of stramash, he does seem to be pursuing this line of questioning.

I’m in with picture, after my third go at leaving and rejoining.

Try that?

That guy - 5th from the left - either ain't got no rhythm or needed to stretch more before he started

Well there's a horse called 'Instant Appeal' running in the 4.20 at Dundalk, that might be relevant😄

It sorted itself eventually, thankfully

From TT

NF Another signatory regarding the process. I'll give you a moment to read this. She was also marked as withdrawn
Yes
NF [reads] She's making it clear she has a concern and wants Rose in a different facility. In repsonse u write at p437

TT

NF An invite to an interview. when she has this interview the 1st Q she's asked by SN is if she wants to withdraw from yr orig letter
Yes
NF So your 1st interest is not to Ix but whether to withdraw
SW We wanted clarity
NF On p711,

You mean you did nothing and eventually the picture appeared?

I’ll try that next time.

From TT

[visuals have resumed]
NF Msg from u to Sn re Linda Wood who u also said had withdrawn [reads re her not wanting to be involved] Did u ask Miss Wood if she still supported the Cs
No
NF Did u interview her
SW She had a v ill family member and a manager said she didnt want to continue

He's probably still having nightmares about it.

From TT

SW She then emailed to confirm this
NF Now to p175. She says in responding to the harassment claim by Rose she says she's upset and thinks the policy is unfair. The policy is wrong
SW She didnt want to continue the Cx. She didnt correct any of the notes and confirmed this

I'm making assumptions without any intel....these names don't sound like typically foreign names might?...

How is that relevant??

I genuinely don’t understand.

From TT

NF There was a consistent response of ppl withdrawing once Rose put in her Cx
SW People were withdrawing, yes
NF [new bundle] Email from u in July 30th to SN attaching interview notes w RH. U explain that CG

Is it essential that there is a lead complainant?

I ❤your username GnomeDePlume.
Of course, you ALL have lovely usernames...

It seems they were desperate to whittle down the number of complainants.

I really can't see the reason why, 1 is enough. Did they think they could get all of them to withdraw?

@DarkNovemberBringsTheFog

Yes, the documents are locked in the room that is only accessible during the public sessions of the Tribunal.

I was trying to lurk in the room to read the bundle during a previous Tribunal and Simon Cheetham got me booted out.