{"id":778860,"date":"2026-09-22T12:20:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778860\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T12:20:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T12:20:13","slug":"why-sandie-peggie-is-taking-the-rcn-union-to-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/778860\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Sandie Peggie is taking the RCN union to court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n That dispute is not settled. Despite the partial win, she is appealing the ruling<\/a>, after claims of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation \u2014 and all claims against Dr Upton \u2014 were dismissed.\n<\/p>\n

\n But from Wednesday, the attention turns to a fresh dispute between Ms Peggie and her trade union of more than 30 years.\n<\/p>\n

\n At a seven-day hearing in Dundee<\/a> overseen by employment judge Melanie Sangster, Ms Peggie will claim the trade union refused her legal support<\/a> after she was suspended by NHS Fife.\n<\/p>\n

\n The 52-year-old nurse argues that decision was discriminatory based on her gender critical beliefs. The union denies all of the allegations.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie, who has worked for NHS Fife<\/a> for more than 30 years, will argue that the trade union failed to advise her that she had grounds to bring a legal claim against the health board while she was suspended.\n<\/p>\n

\n It is further claimed that the RCN refused to provide formal legal assistance to Ms Peggie when she made a secondary claim against NHS Fife over their handling of her disciplinary case.\n<\/p>\n

The allegations<\/p>\n

\n The claims centre on the union’s alleged conduct in the days and weeks after Ms Peggie was placed on special leave and later formally suspended.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n The exact wording in the changing room exchange between Ms Peggie and Dr Upton is disputed, however Dr Upton complained to NHS Fife about the nurse\u2019s conduct.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie alleges that when she first spoke to her union representative, Stuart Fraser, he was \u201cnon-committal\u201d and told her to treat her suspension as an \u201cextended holiday\u201d.\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more\n<\/p>\n

\n Her legal team will argue that Mr Fraser should have advised her that she may have had a potential claim against NHS Fife and referred her to the RCN’s legal services.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie will give her evidence first when the tribunal starts on Wednesday. Mr Fraser and his boss Norman Provan are expected to give evidence to the tribunal.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie says that one RCN officer told her the union would not support her legal claim, and reserved the right to decide how much advice to give to members in any case.\n<\/p>\n

\n The union\u2019s own guidance, published in 2021, states members are entitled to \u201csupport, guidance or representation\u201d regardless of their beliefs \u2013 but that the union can determine the nature and scope of the advice offered.\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking to The Times earlier this week, Ms Peggie said: \u201cRight from the very start, I\u2019ve not had any support at all from the RCN. They\u2019re blinded by trans activists just now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI want this to be a wake-up call for the RCN and other unions.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u00a0\u201cThey really should be working for their female staff and ensuring that there are spaces for biological women, who should have separate changing areas.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Her lawyer, Margaret Gribbon, said the RCN “repeatedly failed to exercise their industrial muscle to advocate for female members distressed because they are being deprived of genuine single-sex spaces to dress and undress at work.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Read more\n<\/p>\n

\n She added: “Had the RCN fulfilled the conventional role of a trade union, it is less likely that Sandie would have faced the ordeal of an 18-month disciplinary process and having to raise legal proceedings against Fife Health Board.”\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie will be represented by Naomi Cunningham, who acted for her in the NHS Fife dispute, while the RCN is represented by David Hay KC, instructed by Anderson Strathern.\n<\/p>\n

What does the RCN say?<\/p>\n

\n An RCN spokesman said: \u201dThe RCN is an anti-discrimination organisation. We support and represent the rights of all our members and we strive to ensure that all members experience discrimination-free workplaces.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe treat our members\u2019 right to confidentiality with the utmost importance and do not comment on individual cases. We are defending the tribunal and are not in a position to comment further.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The NHS Fife dispute<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie told the previous tribunal that she felt uneasy about sharing a female changing room with Dr Upton on three occasions between August and December 2023, with tensions coming to a head on Christmas Eve.\n<\/p>\n

\n The nurse was later suspended but was ultimately cleared of gross misconduct by NHS Fife<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n Under the Equality Act 2010, she sued NHS Fife and Dr Upton, alleging direct discrimination, indirect discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment and victimisation.\n<\/p>\n

\n After 20 days of evidence in February and July last year, the tribunal delivered a unanimous 312-page judgment in December.\n<\/p>\n

\n Four harassment claims were upheld, including on the grounds that NHS Fife failed to revoke Dr Upton\u2019s permission to use the female changing room on an interim basis after Ms Peggie complained.\n<\/p>\n

\n But all other claims failed, with the complaint against Dr Upton thrown out by the tribunal in its entirety.\n<\/p>\n

\n Ms Peggie’s legal team is challenging the judgment on 13 grounds of appeal spanning all three amended versions of the ruling, arguing the tribunal applied the \u201cwrong legal analysis\u201d to whether NHS Fife could lawfully allow a transgender doctor \u2013 born male \u2013 to use the women\u2019s changing room.\n<\/p>\n

\n The full appeal will be heard in the first half of next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That dispute is not settled. Despite the partial win, she is appealing the ruling, after claims of discrimination,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":778861,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-778860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=778860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/778860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/778861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=778860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=778860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=778860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}