"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 8

[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)
Thread 6, 04-Nov to 05-Nov; RH (day 10), SW (day 11)
Thread 7, 05-Nov to 11-Nov; SW (day 11), closing submissions

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 now complete. Submissions are being made on November 11th. 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

True.

We do that one as well as "it's never lupus"

Judgment tomorrow?

Oh really

Oh that would be something.

After Kelly v Leonardo and Peggie v Fife I’m much resigned.

Glad I gardened and will do again.

How long are we since trial ended?

In my dreams the judgement is sub 60 pages, has no AI and is accurate in all quotations / citations…. But it’s a sex realistic case so all bets are off

You know what – unions have had decades to change things for women in the workplace. If they support women’s rights so much, why do we still have a male/ female pay gap, a pension gap and a massive glass ceiling, even in sectors where union presence is strong? The fact is, they have never really cared about women and this is the natural outcome of all of that – a failure to define, respect and represent us even at this most basic level. It is so depressing but if they don’t represent their members in cases like this and SP – worse, they accuse them of bigotry – they deserve to go under and for women to start afresh, as happened here.

I've had it confirmed by well sourced persons that the judgement is expected today although I've not been given a time.
I hope its not another Peggie / Kelly style result though.

"Judgment is expected on Friday in the legal challenge brought by nurses over a transgender colleague’s use of the female changing-rooms at work."

www.heraldscotland.com/news/national/25770197.judgment-expected-nurses-transgender-changing-room-case/?ref=wa

https://x.com/DarlingtonUnion/status/2012054047965266385

After FWS, I thought these cases would be a straightforward win for women who want the dignity and privacy of single sex spaces. However, after the Kelly and Sandie Peggie judgements, I feel nervous about this one.

I do hope Wes Streeting finally does something about single sex changing rooms (or at least gets quizzed more about why not). He seems to be in “interview mode” this week.

I would expect Streeting's response to be rather like the SNP on women's prisons this week. 'We absolutely respect and follow the SCJ while not following the SCJ when we don't want to and this is all sensible and not in any way batshit and we identify as it all making sense'. All that's missing is the underpants on the head and the pencils up the nose.

And yes, I'll expect another batshit judgment headed straight down the long, slow, painful road of appeal.

If this judge rules against them, will he make reference to the feminine looking appearance of Rose?

Same here. It should be a straightforward win but I just don’t have any faith in judges to do the right thing.

Ugh, so much waiting!!!!

OMG there goes my Friday

Do we know what time. Often it’s around 10 isn’t it?

Me too. The latest judgements just smack of either kicking into the long grass in the hope that women give up, or pushing things further down the line in a cowardly move that means they don't have to be the judge that tells the TRAs the word no.

Shame that this BBC article doesn’t have a photo of Rose on its website instead of the nurses. Still trying to subtly influence its audience by including the fact that Rose had been using the cr for 3/4 years before the nurses complained. In bold. And underlined. Just so we get it. If those darn nurses really didn’t like it, they should’ve complained sooner.

Damned if women complain (bigot).
Damned if women don’t complain (you obvs didn’t mind).

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/c62nwl7j44gt

These judges may end up on the infamous side of history for making it more about their own nebulous test of ‘passing’ rather than being about law - all because a bunch of thugs made quite a lot of people frightened.

Surprised to see the BBC covering it in their live feed.

The barrister for the trust said the nurses had "demonised" Rose and that staff were only given access to single-sex spaces if they had "declared they were living their life fully in that gender".

After all these years and many claims, I still don’t know what living life fully in a female gender means.

I don't think living in your female gender means - trying to get your wife pregnant

Nearly 2,500 people watching live stream on BBC website