A local government worker who was sacked for using “deliberately provocative” pronouns in official emails must also now fork out £12,000 (€14.4k) in legal fees after a court deemed that he had not been unfairly dismissed.
In April 2022, IT and communications project officer Jim Orwin balked when his bosses at East Riding of Yorkshire Council told him, and all other workers at the council, to “consider adding pronouns” to emails. He “quickly formed the view” that the request was designed to “facilitate self-identification,” and later told an employment tribunal:
It is my firm belief that announcing pronouns in emails or before meetings is a political gesture designed to intimidate anyone who does not embrace the contested ideology of gender identity.
So instead of using conventional pronouns to end his communications, Orwin went with “XYchromosomeGuy/AdultHumanMale.”
Orwin gave “advance notice” of this decision to his employers, who told him it “may be deemed offensive to others” and asked if he could choose the “other” option of pronouns instead. Orwin responded that “not adding a pronoun would be accepting this garbage and is not an option I can choose.”
The row continued and Orwin stressed he would not back down because it was “all about principles.” So he was sacked.
Employment Judge Ian Miller has since deemed that while the council’s pronoun policy was “poorly thought through and badly executed,” and while Orwin’s “gender-critical belief” constitutes a “philosophical belief” protected under the Equality Act 2010, “none of the treatment [Orwin] experienced was because of his beliefs.” Orwin’s claim he was unfairly dismissed was also itself dismissed, as the judge found his sacking was “well within the band of reasonable responses of a reasonable employer.”
When awarding costs, the tribunal deemed that Orwin had pursued the case “solely” because of his objection to gender self-identification and the council’s support of it.
The case serves as a useful reminder of the extent to which both of Britain’s main political parties have stood by and watched—or, on occasion, boosted—the rise of ‘woke,’ given that Orwin was sacked under a Conservative government and lost his case under Labour.
Orwin has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help raise the money for the council’s costs.
