Sandie Peggie loses tribunal claim against nursing union
An employment judge found the Royal College of Nursing did not discriminate against the Fife nurse because of her gender-critical beliefs. Her spokesperson said the ruling raises serious questions about union membership.
Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy. File photo. · Photograph: Becky Williamson (CC BY-SA 2.0)
Fife nurse Sandie Peggie has lost her employment tribunal case against the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), after a judge dismissed her claims that the union discriminated against her because of her beliefs.
Ms Peggie claimed direct discrimination over her gender-critical beliefs, arguing the union failed to support her properly during her dispute with NHS Fife. A 37-page ruling issued on Monday found the RCN had not discriminated against her.
Background
Ms Peggie's dispute began after she shared a changing room with a transgender doctor, Dr Beth Upton, at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy in December 2023. In a separate case last December, an employment tribunal upheld her claim of harassment against NHS Fife but dismissed her other claims of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation.
In the latest case, the RCN accepted that Ms Peggie held a protected philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010. The question was whether that belief influenced how the union treated her.
The three complaints
The tribunal considered three complaints. The first was that the union should have given her legal advice after she was suspended in January 2024. The tribunal found that her representative had followed the usual approach of explaining the suspension process and waiting for more information, and that he did not know about her protected belief.
The second was the union's refusal to fund legal support for a further claim against NHS Fife. The tribunal accepted the union's explanation that she already had independent legal advice and that the new complaint was closely connected to her existing case, and said this was consistent with the union's established practice.
The third concerned an email from an RCN representative to NHS Fife, which Ms Peggie said failed to seek all the assurances she wanted on single-sex facilities and the treatment of staff with gender-critical beliefs. The tribunal found the representative was supporting her as an individual member rather than addressing wider workplace policy.
Employment Judge Melanie Sangster concluded that Ms Peggie's beliefs had not consciously or subconsciously influenced the union's actions, and dismissed all three complaints.
Reaction
A spokesperson for Ms Peggie said the judgment raised serious questions about the value of trade union membership, and criticised the tribunal's characterisation of her concerns as a disagreement about access to a changing room.