NHS nurse’s tribunal over trans doctor’s use of changing room adjourns | NHS
The Employment Court brought by a nurse from the NHS Fife who opposed the sharing of a locker room with a transgender woman postponed before the end of the submissions to hear in September.
Sandie Peggie, who has been working as a nurse for over 30 years, says she has been subject to illegal harassment under the equality law when she had to share a locker room with Dr. Beth Upton.
The court heard on Tuesday two weeks of evidence of testimony ending. It is closely monitored on the way in which it can be influenced by the historic judgment of April by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the legal definition of a woman in the 2010 equality law did not include transgender women who held certificates of gender recognition. The decision was publicly welcomed by Peggie and his supporters.
In previous evidence, Peggie said she felt “embarrassed and intimidated” when Upton started to change next to her, leading to an animated exchange on Christmas Eve in 2023, the details of which are disputed.
NHS Fife previously described Peggie’s action as “useless and vexatious”. Upton also disputes it.
Recalled to testify on Tuesday a second time, Peggie told his lawyer Naomi Cunningham that a number of other women shared his concerns about Upton but were reluctant to manifest themselves due to the “very toxic” situation with the health council. She appointed 13 NHS Fife workers, including receptionists and a consultant who agreed that a transgender woman should not use the women’s locker rooms.
Peggie was also asked about the allegations made by colleagues who previously testified that she had used racist insults in cat messages and described Upton as a “crazy”. Defending comments on floods in Pakistan as “dark humor”, she also admitted that she had used racial insults but said that she was “mentioned like that”, and that it was not a “politically correct way”.
She said that when she asked for a photo of Upton and used the “this bizarre” sentence, it was a photo of an evening “where he looked like a man in dress”. Under the question of Jane Russell KC, representative Upton and NHS Fife, she denied “carrying out a hate campaign against Dr. Upton”.
Peggie said in court: “I have no bad feelings about trans people, I just don’t think they should be in the wardrobe of women. I always believe that a trans woman is a man and should not be in the female locker room.”
Peggie was suspended after complaining of having to share a locker room with Upton at the hospital the day before Christmas in 2023. She was then put on special leave and later suspended after Upton made an allegation of intimidation and harassment and quoted concerns about “patient care”.
At the start of the hearing of the second proof, NHS Fife confirmed that Peggie had been authorized for distinct allegations of raw misconduct after an internal process of 18 months.
Earlier in the evidence, Gillian Malone, NHS Fife nursing head, told court that she did not remember seeing the risk assessment that led to the suspension of Peggie.
Last week, the two senior lawyers clashed after Russell argued that the Peggie legal team “confused” those who testified by calling the doctor “Him” and “Him” and “creating a hostile environment for my witnesses”.
In January, the Employment Judge Sandy Kemp rejected a request from the NHS Fife to impose an order preventing the use of male pronouns or terms to refer to Upton, concluding that it was “unfair” to ask Peggie and his lawyers to use terms they consider “inaccuracies”.
