An interview in the Times with Sandie Peggie:
There is a certain steel about Sandie Peggie. “I do feel like a poster girl,” she said. “I’m kind of glad that I’m at the forefront of it.”
Three years ago Peggie, a senior nurse, objected to a transgender doctor, Beth Upton, using a female changing room at the A&E department in Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, where she worked. Upton was biologically male but identified as a woman.
After a confrontation between Peggie and Upton just before Christmas 2023, NHS Fife suspended Peggie for alleged “unwanted behaviour”, pending an investigation.
While waiting for the outcome of the disciplinary action, Peggie took NHS Fife and Upton to an employment tribunal, claiming she was the victim of workplace discrimination and harassment. The tribunal hearings, held mainly in February and July last year, made Peggie a household name. “Infamous,” she adds, with a smile.
In December last year, the tribunal panel ruled that NHS Fife had harassed Peggie via four procedural failings, but her main claims of discrimination and victimisation were dismissed. Peggie’s appeal will be heard next year. Now her attention is focused on a parallel legal claim she made against her union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN). The 52-year-old is claiming the RCN’s failure to properly back her legal challenge against NHS Fife was an act of discrimination.
“It’s down to my gender-critical beliefs,” she said.
Peggie’s claim hinges on the alleged failure of her union to advise her that she had legitimate grounds for a legal claim against her employer while she was suspended, and the RCN’s refusal to provide formal legal assistance when she made a secondary claim against NHS Fife over their handling of her disciplinary case.
“They’ve been so unsupportive,” she said. “Right from the very start, I’ve not had any support at all from the RCN. They’re blinded by trans activists just now.”
Separately, the union has faced criticism from campaigners and politicians who accuse the organisation of failing to support staff who object to trans-inclusive policies at work.
Is there a single union that doesn’t support trans ideology? The TUC are right on board, as are the UK’s biggest Unison, with over 70% women members. Same with the RCN:
The RCN has more than half a million members, the vast majority of them female. Peggie has paid her RCN union dues for nearly three decades, but said when she needed them they failed her.
“They were completely indifferent to me as a member with a previous history of sexual assault who did not want to undress in front of a man,” she said….
Asked why she wants to re-enter the fray, this time against her union, Peggie is resolute. “I want this to be a wake-up call for the RCN and other unions,” she said. “They really should be working for their female staff and ensuring that there are spaces for biological women, who should have separate changing areas.”
It’s the law, after all.
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