SANDIE PEGGIE TELLS TRIBUNAL UNION FAILED TO SUPPORT HER

Sandie Peggie has told an employment tribunal she did not believe her union representative took her objections to sharing a female changing room with a transgender colleague as seriously as she did. Peggie says the Royal College of Nursing failed to support her after NHS Fife suspended her over a complaint about her conduct by Dr Beth Upton, a transgender woman who was born biologically male. The union disputes the claim. This is the second tribunal Peggie has brought over the dispute with Upton, having won part of a harassment claim against NHS Fife in December 2025, while a tribunal dismissed her other allegations of discrimination and victimisation.

The dispute began after encounters between Peggie and Upton at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy in late 2023, and NHS Fife suspended her afterwards. She said union representative Stuart Fraser "appeared pleasant" and told her to treat her leave "as an extended holiday". Peggie said she felt Fraser was not taking her concerns as seriously as she was, nor considering the legal issues involved. She said Fraser seemed to be "pushing" her to move to another department against her wishes, and that she did not feel supported, believing staff were "taking the doctor's side rather than mine".

Peggie's lawyer, Naomi Cunningham, asked why she had felt the need to contact her MP, Neale Hanvey. Peggie said she did not feel Stuart had treated her complaint as serious, and thought he believed she had been disciplined for doing something wrong. Her first tribunal, against NHS Fife and Upton, attracted attention. Peggie has said she will not give up the legal fight, and a related appeal is set to go ahead next year.