A woman whose gender-critical beliefs were the subject of a petition and scathing comments from colleagues has won her claim for harassment at an employment tribunal.
Ms Fahmy, a relationship manager at Arts Council England, claimed hostile comments were made about people who hold gender-critical beliefs, which are protected under the Equality Act.
Fahmy believes that “sex is real, important, immutable, not be conflated with ‘gender identity’” and told the tribunal that she did not believe that “trans women are women” or that “trans men are men”.
In April 2022, an internal Teams meeting was called to discuss the award, and subsequent removal, of a grant for a film proposed by the LGB Alliance – which shares Fahmy’s belief that sex is immutable.
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During that meeting, deputy chief executive Simon Mellor said the LGB Alliance was a “divisive organisation” that has a history of “trans-exclusionary activity”.
Fahmy challenged this claim during the meeting, stating that it was misleading for Mellor to call the LGB Alliance anti-trans, and asked how gender-critical views are protected at the Arts Council. She was the only participant who voiced gender-critical views.
Following the meeting, an employee referred to as ‘SB’ in the tribunal’s judgment sent an email to all staff, titled “allies support sheet”. The email included a link to a petition and said: “The LGBTQIA+ working group is raising a formal grievance in accordance with the company’s grievance procedure in response to how the LGB Alliance funding decision was handled in the drop-in sessions, avoiding accountability, the conflict of interest of senior members of staff with clear, homophobic/anti-trans views in positions of decision-making…”.
The petition sheet invited comments from colleagues. One comment said, “It is clear that there are members of our own organisation who are happy to be vocally anti-trans and ‘gender critical’. We shouldn’t have to put up with this any more than we would racist or sexist behaviour”; while another said, “If I came to work one day, and attended a drop-in session where staff members were openly making racist statements, and asking Arts Council what protection will be offered to them as race-critical staff members – I would feel terrified.”
Fahmy raised a grievance, stating that the email and petition were aimed at her because she was the only one who shared her gender-critical views during the meeting. Her complaint was not upheld and she was not given the right to appeal the decision.
The employment tribunal in Leeds found that the petition and email amounted to an act of harassment against those with gender-critical beliefs, with the tribunal noting that the Arts Council England was liable for the acts of its employees.
Employment Judge Shepherd said: “The respondent was aware this was a contentious issue… the Tribunal is not satisfied that the respondent has taken all reasonable steps as required in section 109(4) to prevent its employees from harassing someone with the claimant’s protected characteristic.”
Fahmy resigned from the organisation earlier this year. She brought claims for harassment and victimisation, which were heard by the Leeds employment tribunal.
The victimisation claims – which related to the respondent removing her access to the organisation’s IT systems after she began talking to the media, and its response to Fahmy’s letter complaining that the Arts Council did not challenge an employee who claimed gender-critical beliefs were not protected – did not succeed.
Further harassment claims, related to Mellor’s and others’ comments in the Teams meeting, were also dismissed. The tribunal found that, although it did upset the claimant, Mellor’s comments “did not cross the threshold of creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for the claimant”.
A further hearing will be scheduled to discuss compensation for harassment in relation to the petition and email.
An Arts Council England spokesperson said: “We are pleased that the ruling confirmed that two allegations of harassment and two claims of victimisation were not well-founded and were dismissed, and that there was nothing in the judgment to support the accusation of institutional bias.
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“We are reflecting on the judgment which upheld two allegations of harassment in relation to a petition set up by a junior member of staff who no longer works for us, and we note the tribunal’s acknowledgement of steps taken by us to disable the petition and address the incident at the time.”
