Sandie Peggie says union did not take her case seriously

A nurse has told an employment tribunal she did not believe her union representative took her objections to sharing female changing rooms with a transgender colleague as seriously as she did.

Sandie Peggie claims the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) failed to properly support and advise her after she was suspended over a complaint about her behaviour by Dr Beth Upton. The RCN disputes the claim.

It is the second employment tribunal Peggie has brought over the dispute with Upton – a transgender woman who was born biologically male.

Peggie partially won a claim for harassment against NHS Fife in December last year, but her other allegations of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed.

The dispute began following a number of encounters between Peggie and Upton at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy towards the end of 2023.

The nurse was suspended shortly afterwards and spoke to RCN representative Stuart Fraser.

Peggie said Fraser "appeared pleasant", explained how long a disciplinary process would last and said she should treat the leave "as an extended holiday".

She later told the tribunal: "After speaking with Stuart I got the impression he wasn't taking it as seriously as I was, or considering anything legal."

Asked by her lawyer Naomi Cunningham why she had felt the need to speak to the MP, Neale Hanvey, about the matter, Peggie replied: "I didn't feel comfortable that Stuart had taken it as serious complaint.

"I thought he thought I'd been disciplined because I'd done something wrong."

Peggie also said, after a meeting about her suspension, that she felt Fraser was "pushing" for her to change to another department against her wishes.

Asked how she felt, she replied: "Not supported. I feel like people were taking the doctor's side rather than mine."

Cunningham also asked her client why certain members of staff did not give evidence during the first tribunal.

Peggie said: "I think possibly it was fear. They had seen the way I had been treated from senior staff members."

The first tribunal, against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, became a high profile and controversial case. Peggie was backed by the campaign group Sex Matters, co-founded by Maya Forstater.

The RCN's lawyer, David Hay KC, questioned Peggie about when she came to understand the phrase "gender critical".

Peggie said it would have been "round about" the time she spoke to Forstater, which was shortly after she contacted her MP in January 2024.

"I was made aware that because of what had happened in the changing area, I didn't believe biological men should be in women's changing spaces.

"Being a sex realist was more or less the same as being gender critical."

Hay highlighted that Peggie had received funding from Sex Matters, and pointed to correspondence from the group that said the issues in the case were of "significant strategic importance".

The lawyer asked Peggie: "My reading is that the strategy is Sex Matters' strategy, as opposed to being a particular strategy from you?"

Peggie replied: "Yes."

She added that speaking with Forstater led her to understand that she had a legal case "because of my beliefs".

Turning to contact between Peggie and the RCN union, Hay said the first time Peggie had put in writing that she felt "failed from the outset" by the union was in March 2025.

Prior to this, he said she had other opportunities to raise with her union representative that she was unhappy that the union had not offered her legal services.

Peggie said: "I believe it [legal services] should have been offered."

The tribunal heard that another RCN representative, Gillian Tait, took over Peggie's case from June 2025. Peggie said Tait had contacted her two or three times "just to check in".

Hay said there had been "at least 11 occasions" when Tait was in contact with Peggie – during which the nurse opted not to meet or speak on the phone.

The lawyer said the union rep had offered opinions, kept Peggie in the loop, and demonstrated that she had sought assurances from the health board that Peggie would have access to single-sex spaces before returning to work.

Earlier in evidence, Peggie had said she did not believe the union had pushed NHS Fife to stop men accessing single-sex spaces for women, which Hay challenged.

Peggie conceded it "wasn't right" for her to say the union had not pushed at all.

Former Alba MP Neale Hanvey, who also previously worked in cancer nursing, gave evidence to the tribunal.

He said Peggie's mother had phoned his office about her case "because of my particular interest in sex and gender".

After meeting with the two women, Hanvey said it was "quite obvious" that Peggie was in a state of emotional distress and that she was not getting the support he would have hoped a union member would receive.

He said he put Peggie in touch with the campaign groups Sex Matters and For Women Scotland because he felt it was "important that I used my connection with them" to provide the nurse with support.

The tribunal, which is taking place in Dundee, continues.