A nurse who objected to sharing a female staff changing room with a transgender colleague has succeeded on a narrow part of an employment claim against NHS Fife, while other allegations were dismissed. The case centers on Sandie Peggie, an A&E nurse with about 30 years’ service, who was suspended after raising concerns about Dr Beth Upton, a biological male who identifies as a woman, using the women’s changing room at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
Ms Peggie brought claims under the Equality Act 2010, alleging discrimination and harassment by both the health board and Dr Upton. In a written employment tribunal judgment, the panel concluded that NHS Fife had harassed Ms Peggie in four specific ways but rejected her broader claims of discrimination and victimisation. All allegations against Dr Upton were dismissed.
The tribunal said the board should have taken interim measures when the complaint was made — for example, temporarily withdrawing Dr Upton’s permission to use the female changing room until rota adjustments meant they would not be working together. It also found the board took an unreasonably long time to investigate allegations made against Ms Peggie; that staff were wrong to instruct her not to discuss the matter; and that the board’s reference to unproven suggestions that she had put patients at risk amounted to harassment.
A separate hearing will be held to determine remedy, which could include compensation.
Ms Peggie described the finding as a huge relief after what she called an “agonising” two years for her and her family. Her legal team said they had only just received the detailed judgment and would review it; they indicated some parts raised serious concerns in their preliminary view. NHS Fife noted the tribunal dismissed the complaints against Dr Upton and that only four harassment findings against the board were upheld; the health board said it would study the judgment with legal advisors to consider the implications.
Politically, the decision has attracted attention across Scotland. First Minister John Swinney called the ruling important and said the government would consider the wider issues raised, while stressing people remain free to raise employment concerns lawfully.
Responses from campaigners were mixed. Sex Matters, which supported Ms Peggie, criticised the tribunal for not offering clearer guidance to employers on managing single-sex spaces and argued that employers should be able to refuse access to trans women in some circumstances. By contrast, discrimination lawyer Robin Moira White, who works with the trans-led group Translucent, described the judgment as balanced and said it recognised the need for employers to accommodate both trans staff and workers with gender-critical views.
The case sits against a broader backdrop: a recent UK Supreme Court judgment defined “sex” in equality law as biological sex, but the tribunal here said that did not automatically make it lawful or unlawful for a trans woman to use a female changing room at work. Legal commentators say Ms Peggie’s success is largely procedural, focused on how NHS Fife handled her complaint, rather than a substantive legal endorsement on access to single-sex facilities. The ruling leaves unresolved questions for employers and policymakers and, according to some observers, may have added to rather than clarified the legal position on workplace changing rooms and toilets.