Sandie Peggie: 'RCN union sided with trans doctor rather than back me'
Sandie Peggie gave evidence against her union of 30 years, saying she was discriminated against and unsupported
Sandie Peggie’s union sided with a transgender doctor and left her “unsupported”, an employment tribunal has heard.
The nurse is suing the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) after 30 years’ membership, claiming she was discriminated against due to her gender critical beliefs.
The RCN denies all claims against it.
Ms Peggie was suspended after an altercation with a transgender colleague, Dr Beth Upton, a biological male who identifies as a woman, in a women’s changing room.
Accounts of the event, in Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, on Christmas Eve 2023 vary but the 52-year-old faced the prospect of disciplinary action after the confrontation.
Last December, a first tribunal upheld four of her claims agains the health board but dismissed others, including all those against Dr Upton.
An appeal is ongoing.
A second tribunal, sitting in Dundee, opened on Wednesday and heard evidence from Ms Peggie.
Under examination by her KC, Naomi Cunningham, Ms Peggie described her interactions with her union representative Stuart Fraser.
After approaching him for help in January 2024, she said: "I felt like he thought I was being disciplined because I had done something wrong.”
She also said she felt the RCN rep was not taking the situation “as seriously as I was”.
Ms Peggie added that he had not seemed to be “considering anything legal”.
Following a phone call that Mr Fraser’s record says was 40 minutes but Ms Peggie says was closer to 10 minutes, the union rep wrote that she compared Dr Upton using the women’s changing room with “when they put a man in a female prison”.
The note, seen by The Scotsman as part of the bundle of documents relating to the case”, is a short paragraph ending with “Advised will open case”.
Mr Fraser wrote that Ms Peggie’s comments, which she admitted referred to the transgender rapist Isla Bryson, were “most likely what has caused the suspension”.
Ms Peggie also told the tribunal she felt Mr Fraser was siding with the health board and Dr Upton by pushing her to move department.
During a suspension review meeting in March 2024, NHS Fife offered to allow her to return to work if she moved to the minor injuries unit.
She told employment judge Mel Sangster she “loved” her role in A&E and did not want to move.
Ms Peggie said: "I felt like he was pushing for me to change to another department as well.”
She added she felt “not supported”.
“I feel like people were taking the doctor's side rather than mine,” she went on.
“I didn’t want to work anywhere else,” she said. “I loved my job in A&E. I didn’t think I had done anything wrong.”
Mr Fraser was also copied into a letter from Ms Peggie’s solicitor, Margaret Gribbon, to NHS Fife in May 2024.
The letter explained that Ms Peggie felt single-sex spaces for women were vital because she had been repeatedly sexually assaulted by her GP at the age of 17.
"One of the reasons my client is so uncomfortable about having to share a changing room with males is because on or about 1998, when she was aged 17, she was sexually assaulted on several occasions by her GP,” the letter reads.
It explained she had not told anyone about the assaults at the time, only disclosing them 20 years later and adding “it is one which causes her distress”.
She said Mr Fraser had not spoken to her about the disclosure.
Ms Peggie said she had gone to the then-MP Neale Hanvey for support with the situation she found herself in.
Mr Hanvey gave evidence to the tribunal in the afternoon session on Wednesday.
The former nurse said he had put Ms Peggie in touch with the gender critical groups Sex Matters and For Women Scotland to “supplement” what he saw as “deficiencies in the RCN’s approach”.
Earlier in the day, the court heard that Ms Peggie had asked the RNC to demand assurances from NHS Fife that staff could speak freely about single-sex spaces without fear of reprisals.
She wanted reassurances the health board understood the single-sex spaces were protected under the Equality Act 2010 and that NHS Fife would provide them.
The nurse further asked that the RNC sent the letter to every NHS Fife employed member, which the union did not do.
David Hay KC, representing the RCN, cross-examined Ms Peggie.
READ MORE:NHS Fife nurse accused of 'judgement and hostility' that 'do not deserve' Equality Act defence
“Is the head of your claim against Ms Tait [another RCN rep] really about the fact Ms Tate did not copy her correspondence to NHS Fife to all members?” he asked the nurse.
“Yes,” she replied.
Mr Hay also asked her to consider an article on the BBC News website in which she was quoted as saying she was not a “campaigner”, nor had she previously known the concept of being “gender critical”.
She told the court she had come to the expression much later.
Asking her whether it was correct she had said she was not a campaigner, Mr Hay highlighted an email in which Sex Matters, a campaign group that funded her initial legal support, called her situation of "significant strategic importance”.
Ms Peggie said she had come to know and understand the meaning of “gender critical” after speaking to Sex Matters chief executive Maya Forstater in 2024.
He also put it to Ms Peggie that she had had multiple opportunities to complain about the conduct of Mr Fraser and the RCN, as well as ask for legal help.
She said: “I believe it should have been offered” after saying she had taken advice from Ms Gribbon and “I trusted her more than the RCN”.
Mr Hay set out that the RCN had contacted her 11 times between June and December 2025 and had mentioned legal advice in an email.
Ms Peggie said the email had gone to her junk folder and she had not seen it until much later in proceedings.
Witnesses on Thursday are expected to include former RCN Scotland policy officer Lisa Mackenzie.
Jenny Wilmot and Pauline Fox, two RCN members bringing their own belief discrimination claims against the union, are also scheduled to give evidence.
The case is due to last for seven days.
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.