JULIE BINDEL: A clown show of a case made Sandie Peggie's life a misery - now it's time NHS chiefs face the consequences for what they forced her to endure

Daily Mail​

5 days ago

The Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife employment tribunal took a dramatic turn yesterday when the internal disciplinary investigation cleared the nurse of all gross misconduct allegations.
On the evening before the case resumed came information that four gross misconduct allegations: two relating to patient care failures, one of misgendering Dr Beth Upton, and one relating to her encounter with Dr Upton in the workplace female-only changing room on Christmas Eve 2023, which were classed as 'hate incidents', were dropped.
Peggie is a female nurse who objected to sharing a changing room at NHS Fife with the trans-identifying Dr Upton, both before and after a gruelling shift on the ward.
Peggie felt uncomfortable and intimidated by Dr Upton's presence and raised this with her manager but nothing was done to address the issue. In fact, she was informed that the doctor had a right to use the female-only changing room.
On 24 December 2023, there was a confrontation between the two. Peggie, a professional subordinate, objected to Dr Upton using the space because the changing room is a single-sex facility, permitted by law.
A hard-working nurse with three decades of experience, she was subsequently placed under investigation and suspended.
Peggie fought back and took both NHS Fife and the doctor to a tribunal, citing unlawful discrimination and harassment against her.
This development has significant implications for NHS Fife which is sharing a legal team and, therefore, a legal narrative with Dr Upton, who triggered the complaints against Sandie Peggie.
The result of this case will have wider ramifications for the way the NHS deals with the issue of gender identity versus biological sex.
While I am one of the many common sense citizens who is delighted for long-serving nurse Peggie, I am astounded and horrified that NHS Fife put her through these stressful disciplinary proceedings at all – simply for challenging a biological male for using the women's changing room.
It is unclear whether there were specific policies in place when Dr Upton began to work at NHS Fife, but during the tribunal we learned those tasked with implementing equality and diversity protocols decreed that the doctor had a right to use those spaces.
The tribunal now has to decide whether or not the presence of trans-identifying Dr Upton in that changing room is lawful, or whether it amounts to unlawful harassment of Peggie.
While it is probably still in Dr Upton's best interests to argue that Peggie engaged in harassment and endangered patients, it is very hard to see how that's still in NHS Fife's best interests.
And it is just as hard to see how Jane Russell KC can continue to argue these points when one of her clients has now determined this didn't happen.
There is a very clear law that requires employers to provide separate changing facilities for male and female employees in the workplace.
Based on evidence that Dr Upton gave in terms of the date of transitioning, no Gender Recognition Certificate (GRC) was in place when these events occurred.
But since the Supreme Court decision this April, namely that even a GRC does not give a blanket legal right for men in possession of one to use a female-only facility, this argument will be difficult to apply.
The management of NHS Fife has made Peggie's life a misery and wasted a huge amount of public money defending the indefensible.
Bearing in mind how strapped for cash the NHS is, I hope they are severely reprimanded for what they have forced her to endure.
We know that with cases against those who commit heresy regarding gender ideology, the process itself is the punishment. Sandie Peggie has been tortured for 18 months by her employers because a biological male decided to encroach upon her personal space.
For 30 years, this woman has worked hard under the most stressful of circumstances. She had an unblemished record, which she has now reclaimed as a result of these spurious and vindictive allegations being dropped.
Although Peggie is clearly mightily relived at no longer having the cloud of these very serious allegations hanging over her, the case and the sadistic treatment of the hard-working public servant will act as a warning to others who dare to speak out about the harms of gender ideology in the workplace, particularly when it involves a colleague of a higher rank.
Despite this, the gender house of cards is falling, particularly since the Supreme Court decision in April, brought by a fine group of Scottish feminists, but also because the general public is now becoming aware of the ridiculousness of the notion that a person can simply change sex.
As NHS Fife's equality and human rights lead officer Isla Bumba, who originally advised management that Dr Upton should be allowed to use the female changing room, told the ongoing tribunal yesterday: 'If someone says that they are trans, I would believe that they are trans,' having already admitted that she had no idea whether Dr Upton had undergone any surgery, hormonal treatment, or even made an effort to 'look like a woman'.
In the light of this disgraceful witch hunt against Peggie, I hope that human resources departments and individuals everywhere charged with upholding actual anti-discrimination measures in the workplace will take note.
They must adhere to the laws of the land confirmed by the Supreme Court – and not Stonewall's made-up rules.
They must not bow and scrape to bullies and, instead, must protect and defend the rights of women to have a safe space when getting changed and in other situations that require single-sex facilities.
I don't understand why those like Dr Upton, and their numerous trans activist allies, cannot see why taking off their clothes in front of a woman would cause discomfort and fear.
Why do these people think feminists fought decades ago for female-only facilities and services?
When single-sex facilities were created, very few people suggested it was outrageous or that it meant that all men were being painted as potential rapists.
And yet many transgender activists claim that unless we let any man who claims to be a woman inside a single-sex facility, we are calling them a rapist. It is simply a matter of upholding women's safety and dignity.
The tribunal continues, despite a number of experts in workplace discrimination and the law relating to equality law assuming it would collapse in light of Peggie being cleared of wrongdoing.
But this clown show of a case will surely be a lesson for all employers, as well as public institutions such as universities, police forces, and governmental departments in implementing laws and policy as dictated by bullying trans activists.
Putting a woman who has done no wrong whatsoever through hell and back in order to appease a biological male who demands to be recognised as female is not only cruel on a deeply personal level, but also costly in other ways.
To date, this case has been fought with £220,000 of public money, and for the majority of the public, without our consent.