Sandie Peggie Employment Tribunal: The story so far

The Herald Scotland

4 days ago

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Sandie Peggie, a nurse with more than 30 years' experience in A&E, told the tribunal she entered the changing room that night to deal with a sudden and heavy period. She said she was embarrassed and flustered, and wanted privacy.
Dr Beth Upton, a trans woman and junior doctor, was in the room.
What followed was a short but heated exchange. The exact wording is disputed.
'I've never been scared of Beth,' Ms Peggie said when giving evidence. 'He has a male presence and I do not want to be alone with a male taking his clothes off.'
Ms Peggie stated that Dr Upton "looked male. He had his hair in a ponytail and a receding hairline and Adam's apple".
In their evidence, Dr Upton said: 'She told me this was the women's changing room and she told me that it was inappropriate for me to be in there.
'She said that she felt intimidated by my presence and that I couldn't be in there.'
The doctor said Ms Peggie said others felt the same.
Dr Upton said they apologised to the nurse for how she was feeling but told her 'as a woman I am allowed to use these changing rooms', and said if Ms Peggie had a problem with that she should raise it formally.
Dr Upton added: 'She repeated that I cannot be in this room and that I am not a woman, that it is not safe, that she understood I was going through some sort of process but as a man I couldn't be in the changing room.
'I responded to her that I am not a man and that I can be in this changing room.'
The doctor said Ms Peggie asked what their chromosomes were and said it was 'like the situation in prisons', which they understood to be an allusion to Isla Bryson, a transgender woman convicted of rape. They described the comments as 'hurtful and demeaning'.
'She told me this is like the situation in prisons,' Dr Upton told the tribunal. 'I was aware of the Isla Bryson case. It made me feel awful.'
Beth Upton arrives at the Tribunal (Image: NQ)
Ms Peggie denied using offensive language. 'I do not recall using the word chromosomes. I never mentioned the word rapist.'
However, she confirmed that she referenced 'a biological man in a women's prison', and insisted this was a general comment about policy and not directed personally at Dr Upton.
'Because biological women are opposed to men being in their spaces,' she said.
After the incident, Dr Upton remained in the room. 'I told her if she had a problem, she should raise it formally,' they said. 'That was what I would do.'
In the early hours of Christmas Day, they filed a complaint through NHS Fife's Datix system, describing the episode as a 'hate incident'.
'She told me that I wasn't a woman. She questioned my chromosomes,' Dr Upton said. 'I felt deeply hurt and targeted.'
Ms Peggie returned home, where she said nothing of the incident. Her husband later told the tribunal: 'She was upset, she was embarrassed, then started opening Christmas presents.'
On December 30, NHS Fife placed her on special leave. By January 3, she had been formally suspended pending a disciplinary investigation.
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Internal messages seen by the tribunal suggest there was concern about that decision. 'It was ludicrous to have a nurse at home two night shifts a week,' one email from HR staff read.
More controversial still were allegations of patient safety breaches which emerged only after Ms Peggie had been suspended.
It was claimed she had walked out of a resuscitation unit when Dr Upton entered, leaving a patient unseen. These claims are now part of a separate internal misconduct case.
One HR worker questioned: 'Do we have any evidence to support this concern?'
Ms Peggie has denied all wrongdoing, describing the allegations as 'fabricated'.
'They're not true,' she said.
Dr Upton said they never wanted to see Ms Peggie punished, but felt they had to speak up.
'I wasn't willing to let someone's bigoted outburst… stop me being who I was,' she said.
Under questioning from Naomi Cunningham, counsel for Ms Peggie, Dr Upton denied seeking to end the nurse's career. 'I didn't want to punish her,' they said. 'That was not the intention.'
The tribunal has now heard 10 days of evidence and is scheduled for another 11.
This is a case that touches on the right of staff to express gender-critical beliefs, the legal definition of sex, the duties of NHS employers, and the rights of transgender colleagues.
Ms Peggie is claiming harassment, belief discrimination, indirect discrimination, victimisation, and whistleblowing detriment under the Equality Act 2010. NHS Fife and Dr Upton deny all wrongdoing.
The next witness the tribunal will hear from is NHS Fife's equality lead Isla Bumba, who advised that staff should be allowed to use facilities aligning with their gender identity.
The 20-something, who earns between £50,861 and £59,159 per year, has characterised her role as a 'support aid' for NHS staff, addressing concerns such as 'staff [who] are not sure what the correct pronouns for someone are'.
Despite having no legal training, Ms Peggie's managers turned to her for advice after Ms Peggie raised concerns about Dr Upton's presence in women's facilities.
Kirkcaldy's Victoria Hospital
She advised Ms Peggie's line manager, Esther Davidson, that Dr Upton had a 'right' to use the female changing rooms because she 'identifies as a woman'.
NHS Fife's legal costs for the case have already exceeded £220,000 and are expected to double. The board initially refused to release the figures under Freedom of Information legislation, prompting a public rebuke from the Scottish Information Commissioner.
The case has also attracted interest from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which wrote to NHS Fife to remind it of its obligations around single-sex spaces.