"Darlington Nurses" vs County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust Tribunal Thread 9

[ThreeWordHarpy]

Thread 1, 7-Oct to 23-Oct
Thread 2, 23-Oct to 28-Oct
Thread 3, 28-Oct to 29-Oct
Thread 4, 29-Oct to 31-Oct
Thread 5, 31-Oct to 04-Nov
Thread 6, 04-Nov to 05-Nov
Thread 7, 05-Nov to 11-Nov
Thread 8, 11-Nov to 16-Jan (last thread with the schedule and abbreviations)

Five nurses working at Darlington Memorial Hospital filed a legal case against their employer, an NHS trust, for sexual harassment and sex discrimination. The nurses objected to sharing the women’s changing facilities with a male colleague, Rose, who identifies as female. The hearing was held between 20th October and 11th November and was live tweeted by Tribunal Tweets who have comprehensive information regarding this case on their substack, including archives of the twitter threads, lists of people involved and press releases.

At the time this thread was started, the judgment had not yet been published on the Courts website but was widely reported in the media that the NHS was found to have discriminated against the nurses, but the claims against Rose were not upheld.

That should have read CIVIL action of course, sorry!

Just a reminder that the nurses are apparently still £25k (!) short of the funds they need for their legal costs if anyone can do any gardening. We are all in their debt...

Michael Foran has just posted giving Seamus good marks for his homework

It would 🤷‍♀️

What a good piece! Couldn't agree more. If only people like that were in charge of the Labour Party.

In any just world, this is the moment where the trade unions would have stepped in. The protection of female workers from harassment and the defence of safe working conditions are, quite literally, the reason unions exist.
So, where were they? Where was the mighty machinery of Unison, the UK’s largest union with a predominantly female membership? Where were the GMB and Unite?
They were not standing on the picket line with these nurses. In a grotesque inversion of their founding principles, elements of the trade union movement were actively lining up against them.

Have they been awarded any costs? Is a decision on costs still pending? Or are they definitely not getting anything?

I don't know whether I missed it, but I don't recall seeing any reference to Isla Bumba at all in the judgement. It would appear that the tribunal placed all the responsibility for the policies and actions of the Trust firmly on the shoulders of her senior managers?

Bumba was Fife, not Darlington.

This is one of the saddest and most anger-inducing aspects of this case - Unions abandoning women at their time of need

Remember that at Darlington dozens of nurses were unhappy with sharing facilities with a man. Not all of them were able to go to court for a variety of reasons, one of which must have been lack of union support. Especially vulnerable were the international nurses that withdrew from the complaint early on, afraid that it would affect their visa status.

So many women cowered by ONE MAN, and the might of management and unions ready to do anything to grant him his wishes.

Of course! Thank you.🙄

It was a general reference to those who put policies together without understanding their impact

In case people are interested Claire Coutinho MP has a petition to persuade Epson NHS Trust not to sack nurse Jennifer Melle. She has sort of slipped under the radar as most of her backing has been from the church, but to me her treatment is just as shocking.

If you are interested Google. They promise you can then unsubscribe to emails from the Conservative Party. I don't know if anyone else, non-party-affiliated is running anything.

Costs are only awarded in Employment Tribunal cases in exceptional circumstances. The general rule is no costs awards.

Absolutely agree @needmoresleep. The details of that case are jaw dropping.

That’s just what I was going to post

I’ve got a packet of beef mince in the freezer that has significantly better critical thinking skills than your average TG Redditor.

Also, they haven’t decided damages/compensation yet.

I hope these nurses all now get together and put in a claim against the Trust

They’re just so confidently wrong it’s funny.

Given how the NHS has behaved towards women as a class, I feel very concerned that many nurses reliant on their employer for visa status are essentially now in a coercive relationship and being abused by their employer and forced to routinely and repeatedly get undressed in front a man (which may breach cultural and religious requirements as well as privacy, dignity and safety) as part of their employment.

And as we know the unions have sided with managers wanting to force women to undress in front of males.

This is an absolutely brilliant article - crystal clear on how working class women have been let down and material reality ignored for luxury beliefs. Well done Paul Knaggs.

It's good to read articles like this because there aren't many people on the left or from trade union backgrounds speaking out. Paul Knaggs really gets it.

And whenever there are these type of articles on Labour Heartlands, the vast majority of comments are from people agreeing with him (and we know TRAs aren't shy about making their feelings known). It gives me hope that there is a silent majority within the trade union movement that don't agree with how women, such as the Darlington nurses, are treated, but aren't more vocal because of the intimidation tactics mentioned in the article. And these type of silencing tactics won't work in the longterm.

Excellent article from Mr Knaggs.

Yes, I signed this recently. That's two Tory petitions I've signed in the past week! But then I also contributed to the Christian Concern crowdfunder for the Darlington Nurses, which some left-wingers felt they couldn't possibly be associated with... If the left-wing won't support us, I'll support the people who do.

Brilliant article.

I just wish that I believed that any of these union leaders would read it