Faye Russell-Caldicott (an alias - claimant has been granted full anonymity) has brought an employment tribunal complaint against NHS England for indirect discrimination on the basis of sex (women), religion (Islam), philosophical belief (gender critical) and disability (PTSD).
open.substack.com
This is the Tribunal Tweets thread on Faye Russell-Caldicott's employment tribunal against NHS England. It was a short tribunal - finished yesterday. I would recommend reading it all if you can - especially the two NHS witnesses (start from Tues afternoon). I was going to say that the evidence from the NHS is unbelievable but then I remembered that we have seen all sorts of madness from employers now.
Faye is anonymous so I found some of her evidence confusing in trying to establish her role and from that her work patterns, but that's not that important. The issue is that the NHS office in Leeds started to allow a TIM to use the female facilities in the office. Faye complained to no avail. In the end, she resorted to using the gender-neutral toilet which may be the disabled toilet as well - again I'm not entirely sure. There was a lot of confusion about the floorplans - NHSE initially provided the wrong one. Faye also liked to use the gym facilities which I think were in a next door building but were wholly managed by the NHS. The women's shower room has a communal shower with no separate individual cubicles - not even curtains.
The NHS barrister was the same one who represented Darlington NHS. I thought he was more aggressive with Faye than I remembered him being in the Darlington case but I may be misremembering. And also, he had even less to work with than he did in the Darlington case. For example, NHSE still hasn't changed it's policy as they 'are waiting for the guidance' and 'it's complex'.
A few days before the Tribunal started, NHSE conceded that their actions constituted a disadvantage to women, Muslim women and also the disability claim (Faye has PTSD). So the remaining issues were essentially that they didn't agree that Faye was disadvantaged or that their actions were proportionate to achieve a legitimate aim and also the two harassment claims.
The NHSE's evidence was infuriating. There was no impact assessment prior to introducing the policy to allow men to use female facilities; they didn't think to consult with any of the female staff; they followed Stonewall's advice as well as another organisation called GIRES (Gender Identity Research and Education Society'; they haven't changed their policy after the SC ruling because 'they've been busy' and 'it's complex'.
They think that the SC ruling causes confusion regarding the interpretation of the EA regarding trans rights. They are concerned that they might be sued by a TIM if they follow the SC ruling - which is nonsense. They clearly don't understand that the SC ruling
was 100% relating to the EA and in any event the provision of facilities in workplaces is governed by the Workplace Regs.
Their continuing lack of regard for women's rights is breath-taking. The idea that women should expect to share a communal shower with a biological man didn't even give them pause for thought. Their submissions in the end amounted to 'everyone else has the same policy'; 'it wasn't/isn't our fault - Stonewall told us what to do'; and the risible 'no-one should be punished because we were all wrong'. Naomi's submissions were great - it's easy when the law and common sense are on your side.
I found the whole tribunal depressing because it just emphasises how big a battle we still have to fight the Unions, the whole public sector and much of the private sector. And I honestly don't have the words to describe my anger and contempt for Bridget Philipson and the rest of this Labour government. What the hell is Philipson waiting for now? These cases shouldn't, and wouldn't be happening if the Guidance was published and all government ministers told their departments to follow the law.
Sorry for the essay - I hadn't meant for this to be so long!
ETA: Faye is still short of her target - it would be great if people could donate a little if you can. Just google her name for the crowd funder.
www.bbc.co.uk
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