Judge rejects application over employment tribunal panellist

Sara Morrison says she was forced out of her job at the Belfast Film Festival (BFF) after she joined a rally for Let Women Speak in 2023

A judge has thrown out an application for a panel member to be dismissed at an employment tribunal case between the Belfast Film Festival (BFF) and former employee Sara Morrison.

Ms Morrison is taking a discrimination case against her former employer over her views on sex and gender.

The application called for the removal of panel member Michael McKeown on the grounds of alleged bias.

The recusal application is the second of its kind in the tribunal case. Last week, Judge Sturgeon also dismissed accusations of alleged bias in relation to herself and panel members.

Application highlights Nipsa membership

In Monday's written application, which has been seen by BBC News NI, Ms Morrison's legal team said there would be a real possibility that Mr McKeown would be unable to approach his task impartially due to his previous work as a trade union activist for Nipsa (Northern Ireland Public Service Alliance).

Ms Morrison's team said Nipsa has had an active and uncritical support for and campaigning position on gender identity ideology over a number of years, including the later years of Mr McKeown's period of office.

Ms Morrison's legal team also said that since 2015, Nipsa has been actively and uncritically supportive of gender ideology.

In a written response to the application, the Belfast Film Festival's legal team said they opposed the request to remove Mr McKeown.

Barrister Sean Doherty said the suggestion that Mr McKeown shares the views of the union he is seconded to, and therefore the apparent assertion that Nipsa is an organisation wherein all members and staff share the same political opinions is not grounded in fact.

Mr Doherty said no single person forms policy and that the respondent understands that Nipsa has a LGBTQ sub-committee that likely would have been responsible for policy.

He added the respondent is aware that there is no evidence that shows Mr McKeown as a member of that sub-committee.

Judge Sturgeon told the hearing that she had refused the recusal application on several factors, and told the hearing: "Not every member of a union will follow all members of a union."

Judge Sturgeon said Mr McKeown had not been a member of the union for seven years and had no knowledge of the union's current issues - and was not involved in transgender issues.

The tribunal also heard that Mr McKeown was never a member of Nipsa's sub-committee dealing with transgender issues.

Sara Morrison has said she was forced out of her job as inclusion and audience development coordinator at BFF after she joined a rally for Let Women Speak in 2023.

The BFF launched an investigation into her attendance, and she left work citing stress before finally resigning.

It is Ms Morrison's view that a person cannot change their biological sex.

She made comments at the rally about keeping men out of women's spaces and criticised a number of local women's organisations.

Her participation led to complaints by the LGBTQ community to the BFF, which later launched an investigation.

She claims in her case, which has received funding from the author JK Rowling, that she was unlawfully discriminated against by the organisation over her beliefs on sex and gender.

Festival director's social media post

Following the dismissal of the application, the tribunal resumed proceedings and heard from the director of the BFF, Michele Devlin.

Ms Devlin was questioned by Ms Morrison's barrister about a picture she posted of herself on social media wearing a t-shirt that said trans inclusional feminist.

She was asked that if by wearing the t-shirt she was aligning herself with the opposite side of the debate to let women speak.

Ms Devlin told the tribunal she wore the t-shirt because the theme of Pride that year was "stand by your trans", so the ideology was to wear something in line with that.

"I was aligning myself with the theme of Pride," Ms Devlin said.

Ms Cunningham asked Ms Devlin: "Does that mean if women's rights had organised a pile on calling for you to be dismissed - does that mean you ought to be disciplined or dismissed?"

Ms Devlin told the tribunal "but Sara was neither disciplined nor dismissed".

The tribunal continues.