NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #31

[nauticant]

Sandie Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (VH), has brought claims in the employment tribunal against her employer; Fife Health Board (the Board) and another employee, Dr B Upton. Ms Peggie’s claims are of sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation. Dr Upton claims to be a transwoman, that is observed as male at birth but asserting a female gender identity.

The Employment Tribunal hearing started on Monday 3 February 2025 and was expected to last 2 weeks. However, after 2 weeks it was not complete and it adjourned part-heard. It resumed on 16 July and the last day of evidence will be 28 July and then there will be 2 days of submissions from counsel meaning that the hearing will end on 30 July.

The hearing commenced with Sandie Peggie giving evidence. Dr Beth Upton gave evidence from Thursday 6 February to Wednesday 12 February.
Access to view the hearing remotely was obtainable by sending an email request to [email protected] by 5pm on Wednesday 9 July. Detailed instructions were provided here:

drive.google.com/file/d/16-9POEZ7yHWUr6EmbfquJZO18Gv78bSm/view

The hearing is being live tweeted by x.com/tribunaltweets and there's additional information here: tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-005. This also has threadreaderapp archives of live-tweeting of the sessions of the hearing for those who can't follow on Twitter, for example: archive.ph/WSSjg.

An alternative to Twitter is to use Nitter: nitter.net/tribunaltweets or nitter.poast.org/tribunaltweets

Links to previous threads #1 to #29 can be found in the header of thread #30, found here: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5375337-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-30

No - I think the people suggesting that she is racist because of her food preferences are snobs.

Absolutely. The piece is primarily about Upton after all.

Are you sure? The wording of the equality act is:

Sexual orientation means a person’s sexual orientation towards—
(a) persons of the same sex,
(b) persons of the opposite sex, or
(c) persons of either sex.

Based on that definition, it's not obvious to me that asexual people have a sexual orientation for these purposes.

In England and Wales, the tribunal can award aggravated damages based on the way the employer behaves in the tribunal. Such awards are rare, but they do happen. Things are a little different in Scotland. There is no separate award for aggravated damages, but the factors that would lead to such an award south of the border are taken into account when considering the compensation for injury to feelings.

TT's afternoon tweets

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1946185783892644083.html

The BBC professes to be such a big fan of "balance". They should publish two photos side by side like some of the papers do - very effectively!

I think people attending court may be reporting things they ahve seen in the bundles that are available for viewing. I have had the live stream playing all morning and there is more being reported than we have heard.

Am a bit wary of repeating anything verbatim, but broadly speaking its fair to say a witness this morning closed down her own KC by saying she had considered things she heard from other nurses were all hearsay except what she specifically raised in investigation herself.

headline: Tribunal hears trans doctor sobbed while reporting nurse
subheadline: Tribunal hears stifled guffaws....

Certain ethnic minority staff used to cooked a dish containing smoked haddock in the staff kitchen which was actually on the ward. I would complain because it stank the place out. I could potentially have been accused of racism but I wasn't. I did however also complain when anyone cooked very smelly food on the ward regardless of their race/ethnicity.

I guess it would depend on whether racist comments were made in addition to complaining about the smell.

But as we've seen, it's all heresay and rumour anyway so it's irrelevant.

Still they thought it acceptable to raise in a tribunal and get a chance in to imply she's a racist as well as a transphobe. Knowing it could make headlines and further smear sandies reputation in the court of public opinion. ..these people disgust me

The BBC always use the same soft-focus headshot of Upton and I'd be happy to never see it again!

CE is up again, ding ding, round two

Ach they've started up again but I've got to nip out for a few minutes! 😩

It's NC again now.

No, it's NC.

There are threads galore here on MN about people cooking or eating smelly food at work and how that impacts on colleagues. It is a consideration for others issue not a racist issue.

But TT can't hear her😕

Resorting to character assassination just shows up the desperation of the NHS Fife case. Appalling, shameful behaviour.

Good good! NC dealing with her now. Get stuck in!

Do you happen to know where he heard this?

This isn't linked to this particular case, but it's come up in another issue. I discussed with someone today and I wondered if some news outlets are actually using it as a tactic.

Which clearly it shouldn't be!

Food smells is one of those divisive topics. I have read plenty of threads about the rage people feel at colleagues who eat egg or heat up fish in the microwave. My dad couldn’t stand the smell of vinegar and would get off a bus if someone got on with a fish supper.

It could be something a racist would comment on but equally it could also be something that someone who just doesn’t like a particular smell may comment on. Especially in a work kitchen if food is put in bins or spills in microwave are not cleaned up.

TT has corrected itself re NC not CE.

Considering that as a legal question, yes. Being asexual is a sexual orientation, and is therefore a protected characteristic.

Get in there NC

I think that particular witness may have more intelligence that another witness.

I only did the first morning session. I'm actually drinking in the bar at the airport.

And - with all respect - walk a mile in our shoes first.