NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #54

[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 was 29 July 2025. It resumed again over 1 to 2 September for closing submissions.

The hearing commenced with Sandie Peggie giving evidence. Dr Beth Upton gave evidence from Thursday 6 February to Wednesday 12 February 2025. Sandie Peggie returned to give more evidence on 29 July 2025.

Access to view the second part of the hearing remotely was obtainable by sending an email request to: [email protected].

The hearing was 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 #50 can be found in this thread: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 51: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5402652-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-51 1 September 2025 to 2 September 2025
Thread 52: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5403218-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-52 2 September 2025 to 4 September 2025
Thread 53: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5404208-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-53 from 3 September

I'm not sure I'm receiving messages, though

Well I believe she’s still working there isn’t she? Because I recall people were sending her cards etc to the hospital a few months ago.

She's still employed there afaik. So I assume the thinking was they'd need to have channels to contact her. But don't think she is actually going into work iyswim.

On another thread there’s discussion of menopause policy somewhere. I wondered if NHS Fife have one. They do!

https://www.nhsfife.org/about-us/policies-and-procedures/hr-policies-and-procedures/hr-policies/menopause-policy/

The only times “woman” appears are in the para explaining why that word is not used:

Throughout the policy, gender neutral terms are used to describe staff who may experience the menopause. It is recognised that not everyone experiencing the menopause will identify or express themselves as a woman. People who are non-binary, trans or intersex, and who may not identify as a woman, may also experience menopausal symptoms. This policy therefore applies to anyone experiencing the menopause, regardless of their gender expression or identity.

So it’s more important to placate the few than to make sure the document is clear and comprehensible.

According to policy HR49, Pete the plumber is menopausal: “Menopause itself is defined as having occurred when someone has not had a period for twelve consecutive months”

It describes a range of symptoms including heavy periods but doesn’t say they might be irregular or sudden.

The menopause policy on NHS Fife’s website was agreed in 2021 and due for checking in 2024. There’s no sign it has been.

Is there a word for being angry and sad at the same time?

Piece In The Telegraph

Nicola Sturgeon accused of hypocrisy after praising ‘brave’ Sandie Peggie

Un-fucking-believable. 😡

What a nerve !

Wow.

Brass neck on that one.

Are her book sales flagging ahead of Christmas or something?

i saw that earlier in the doctors reception and I may have said FFS rather loudly

!

Shocking 😲 the woman appears to have more faces than the town clock!

I agree that her NHS career is likely over and I only hope that the fact that she only works two shifts per week is an indication that her salary is not crucial to her keeping the roof over her head.

I also hope that she is seeing through this tribunal and her other cases against her union and the staff at the hospital because she knows that she can take a principled stand that other women cannot.

Finally, is she old enough to draw her pension early?

So shocked I unlurked 😡, the bloody nerve, absolutely shameless...

Shifts are typically 12-13 hours, full time is 3 shifts per week, so 2 shifts is 2/3 of full time. Not insignificant at all.

Not without her pension payments being slashed, unfortunately.

What age is sp?

Think she's 52. There was a 50th birthday lunch for her that iirc was in 2023, before she went to Las Vegas. It's talked about here.

https://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/nhs-fife-employment-tribunal-recap-the-latest-in-the-sandie-peggie-and-dr-beth-upton-case-5244152?page=2

Definitely young to take the pension without serious disadvantage. I think they are changing it so can only take it from 57.

been very busy but have kept up with this thread.

the issue of wether an investigation of Uppity’s complaint was justifiable and some of the opinions here i thought was interesting.

Here is my take.

Naomis continued line of questioning of the R witnesses, regarding what was the difference between Pete and Uppity, was in a large part to illustrate that Sandie was challenging a bloke in the changing rooms, and if it had in fact been Pete, then it was unlikely that she would have been subject to an investigation, for telling Pete to sod off.

So the only possible reason there was a full investigation, was because it was ideologically motivated, since there is no material difference between Uppity and Pete.

That is a discrimination of her beliefs that were reasonably expressed.

For the tribunal to conclude otherwise would fly straight in the face of the SCuling and numerous case law going way back on the definition of sex, not to mention the 1992 regs.

But getting a reduced pension for a longer period is often better financially than waiting to get the full pension.

I didn’t realise that was the standard shift length. Thanks for the info.

Yep. I do actually think this could drag out a while longer with her still being employed by Fife and on some kind of gardening leave. After all, there's other ET proceedings relating to Fife staff's treatment of her to come, not to mention ICO referrals, possibly her own to the GMC... there could be a lot more mileage in this yet. But not 5 years.

Nursing changed to 12.5 hour shifts a number of years ago. It’s safer for patients as there’s less changeover of staff involved over the 24 hour period so better continuity of care and less chance of something important not being passed on

Just seen Naomi telling people not to bother reporting her to the BSB for using correct pronouns. Good for her.
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/naomi-cunningham-3332a716_chaps-dont-bother-reporting-me-to-my-regulator-activity-7382047204460474368-HqSZ?utm_medium=ios_app&rcm=ACoAAA8W7EQBxQDTbBfu3lXZaIZh5tEP150UE3A&utm_source=social_share_send&utm_campaign=copy_link

Good for her. Naomi is perhaps fortunate that her regulatory body is one of the few, it seems, who haven't been taken in by this rubbish.