NHS Fife tries to silence nurse - Sandie Peggie vs NHS Fife Health Board and Dr Beth Upton - thread #55

[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 3 September to 1 October 2025
Thread 54: mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5418690-nhs-fife-tries-to-silence-nurse-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-thread-54 from 28 September 2025

Nick names apart, I've only ever had the names I was given as a baby, but my gripe is that my last name is only common in certain parts of northern England so I've had to spell it out for people for as long as I can remember. Not only that, no one outside of the UK can pronounce it either, so I get called all sorts of things.

Literal violence😠

Sad times

Recently I read about another case, an NHS worker who has objected to being called ‘Mush’ by a colleague as that’s misgendering apparently. My dad used to call me Mush as a term of endearment but now I’m wondering if he thought I was a boy.

Indeed. I have had no choice but to try and calm myself with a Tescos Finest mince pie and home made cappuccino. But I am shaking, I tell you. And screaming [we still do that here on MN, don’t we?].

That last post has brought it all back.

Flounces off in search of more mince pies…

I use a different name from my birth name, but work will only accept the one that's on my birth certificate. Despite several requests they won't change it on the system. I have considered asking why they continue to deadname me

We stupidly called DD a long formal name on her bc but an every day name for every day. She does not identify with the long name at all and finds it a bit weird if it's called out at an exam or the doctors.

She has been supported to ignore the very few times it happens, to politely request for it to be noted that her preferred name is Merry" not* *Esmerelda' and to move on.

We clearly missed a litigious opportunitiy here! I might wind her up a bit to feel a bit more distress.

'"not the names but similar in that they are v different, different initials etc

Is there a link to the NB judgment whilst we’re waiting for Big Sond to come up with the goods?

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5451419-employment-tribunal-finds-nb-does-not-meet-pc-of-gr?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I just spent a very fun 30mins watching the NC interview and will be sharing it far and wide as it just really breaks all the nonsense down into common sense.

One of the thing that is odd is that the interview cuts off the last 10 minutes, but the radio version is the full 40 minutes. I went to the radio version but it had no option to ffwd and I didnt want to listen to it all again to find the last 10 minutes!

I hope they find in the balance of probabilities that he lied

Well he certainly lied under examination in court when he insisted he was a biological woman.

Some lies are OK, though.

Upton also implied he had permission to be in the women's, when in fact - he never asked. It was only after the complaint it was agreed that obviously SP must be a bigot - and he could do whatever the fuck he wanted without being challenged.

Thank you!

What's wrong with being called 'Mush'? I grew up in Birmingham and, male or female, we all called each other Mush.

My dad's term of endearment for me was 'Smudge' so maybe he thought I was NB.

Iirc the case failed for this reason

I shall go and read up on that.

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of her rights must be in want of a successful judgment in Peggie v NHS Fife.

I think the complainant tried to argue that Mush is only used between males. In our house we just answered to anything, male or female.

We quickly learned not to cry about someone at school or whatever calling us names, Sticks and Stones etc. I can imagine the laughter if I’d mentioned ‘safe spaces’. When my mother was an infant their house was bombed, twice.

Maybe I’m just an old fart now but what has happened to teaching children resilience?

Sticks and Stones etc.

'Worse things happen at sea'
'You'll be fine'
'Don't be silly'

Those were all said to us regularly.

And as for 'safe spaces', if I'd mentioned those to my dad he'd have just said 'don't be ridiculous'. Then again he was born in the 1930s when things really were tough.

Just remembered another one: 'Vegemite's brain can take the strain' when I was having a bad time at school. A bit more support might have been welcome, but it certainly taught me resilience.

Let's not forget "Life isn't fair" whenever you complained that something wasn't fair.

Yep.

We also got told 'This is my house and I pay the bills, so I make the rules'. No argument with that, is there.

I am one of two children, and our parents always said that so long as we both whined roughly the same amount about things being unfair, they were happy that they were actually being fair.

The resilience thing is quite scary, especially at work. You have to be able to endure a certain amount to exist in the world - life is a constant process of rupture and repair.

All of these, and the ‘life’s not fair’ one was often accompanied by a sharp clip around the ear just to underscore it. Oh and the ‘you’ll thank me one day’ + wallop.

And I’m not that old, really.