NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #46

[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 had been intended to be 28 July with 2 days of submissions from counsel meaning that the hearing was to have ended on 30 July. However, it became apparent as the hearing progressed that this schedule wouldn't be followed. (Considerable understatement.)

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 and tribunaltweets.substack.com/p/peggie-vs-fife-health-board-and-dr-bd6. 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 #40 can be found in this thread: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 41: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379334-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-41 24 July 2025 to 25 July 2025
Thread 42: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379820-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-42 25 July 2025 to 25 July 2025
Thread 43: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379979-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-43 25 July 2025 to 27 July 2025
Thread 44: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5380196-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-44 25 July 2025 to 28 July 2025
Thread 45: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5381518-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-45 28 July 2025 to 28 July 2025

But what right did they have to open post ?.they said it was due to negative post incoming..but surely it's private and not their call.

They have all of our postcards! Bastards!

Missing post?

Sandie claims she never received a letter re her suspension at one point. So this could be the reason.

not clear to me what the point of this is yet - unsurprising NHSF would vet post arriving before passing it on

EM A mixture of +ve and -ve post they wanted to vet what was coming in
NC Did she tell u about how her colleagues felt
EM She. knew a lot of support for Sandie but she said ppl scared to speak out, incl herslef. Which why wanted she wanted anon. At the end of the call she said"women arent safe any more". I told her to contact us again if she wanted. I wld tell MF about the call on our Fri am catch up and she was happy for this to happen
NC Next?
EM I scribbled e'thing down and immed had a call w MF
NC Did she say why she called

Here’s the Willy reference:
https://www.holyrood.com/inside-politics/view,naomi-cunningham-im-fuelled-by-rage-and-ive-been-lucky

But can they legally open staff members post without their permission? It's not prison.

EM She thought she heard s'thing about SP not receiving post she shld have and wondered if had been redirected or put aside
EM I said had been at funeral the prev day so not followed the Thurs but took that down
NC Yr call w MF?
EM Went thru what talked about and Maya said
she'd think about what to do next
NC Plse repeat
EM My notes didnt cover the whole convo. She asked for a phone no to get back to the W.
Look at 1732, yr handwritten note, what is signif of 24/5 April? EM Think had been training
NC What about SM pov

Presumably letter re ix to SP would have been sent to her home address?

NC finished with EM

Yes, that’s why he sometimes asks people to slow down.

JR up

This is why I suggested writing to SP via Naomi or her solicitor.

All post at my work is opened by administrators to be scanned and added onto the system electronically. It’s not like post going to your house.

Woops from Fife. Unless they had Sandie’s agreement to open the post, they had no right to do so. And if there were any concerns over potential hate mail or something to be concerned about, absolutely up to Sandie and her family to decide how to handle that, not Fife. Easy enough to have a friend or family member to review them in advance of handing these over in case they cause some harm.

We can add this to the list of things that shouldn’t have been handled like this in relation to this case.

JR trying to slur Sex Matters name

The thinking is that transwomen are dangerous.

No we just think they are men.

Bingo

Here’s a question: if DU been a black trans-identifying man, does anyone think he would have received the same red carpet treatment from a) the trust or b) SP’s doctor or nurse colleagues?

On that theme, are there many black trans people?

I love diet coke and red wine mixed together so I'm up for trying a diet coke/iron bru combo.

When I worked in admin the rule was if it said "private and confidential" or words to that effect, I didn't open it and passed it straight on in person, but anything else I did open so I could deal with anything for the directors. But there was rightly some presumption of privacy for anything marked as such.

EM V rare for a phone call. We need a protocol in place in case we get another call like this. What info to get and how to provide info to the caller.

JR U work for SM
EM Correct Y've prev worked on Pink Stinks re gender stereotypes?
Correct
JR How do u feel re W being womanly
women?
EM I dont agree at all
JR SM have a partic perspective
EM We believe sex import
JR U say TW are pretending to gain acces to W spaces?
EM Wldnt put tlike that
JR Theyre dangerous
EM We jsut think theyre M
JR Theyre pretending so can access F CR?

[I'm not sure about the 'womanly womn' exchange, not clear in transcript]

But they don't JR, they don't.

JR confusing the witness - if a man wanted to attack a woman he wouldn't go through lower surgery.

I actually think yes, as they could have smugly thought they were excellent at two PCs at once. Making them not racist despite evidence of a racist culture there.

JR speaking in clipped angry tones again. She sounds bonkers. It reminds me of when Upton said he's not a robot. JR sounds like an actual robot.