Sandie Peggie: Employment Tribunal, associated legal claims, and related matters - thread #63

[nauticant]

TLDR version: Sandie Peggie vs Royal College of Nursing is currently being heard. The hearing started on Wednesday 23 September 2026 and is scheduled to end on Thursday 1 October 2026.

Sandie Peggie, a nurse at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy (VH), brought claims in the employment tribunal against her employer; Fife Health Board (the Board) and another employee, Dr B Upton. Ms Peggie’s claims were of sexual harassment, harassment related to a protected belief, indirect discrimination and victimisation. Dr Upton claimed 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 after a prolonged process judgment was handed down on 8 December 2025. That judgment is being appealed and an appeal hearing is expected to take place in 2027.

Additional legal claims have been raised. Sandie Peggie is taking action against the Royal College of Nursing, against three senior managers who were witnesses in the employment tribunal - Dr Kate Searle, Dr Maggie Currer and Esther Davidson, against Carol Potter, the chief executive of NHS Fife, for victimisation, against NHS Fife for discrimination, and against its director of people and culture David Miller for harassment. In addition, Sandie Peggie is being investigated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council over fitness to practice.

The past proceedings were live tweeted by www.x.com/tribunaltweets. Tribunal Tweets are likely to be providing coverage in current and future proceedings. There's additional information on Tribunal Tweets' substack: tribunaltweets.substack.com/.

Links to previous threads #1 to #60 can be found in this thread: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5379717-sandie-peggie-list-of-threads-covering-employment-tribunal-and-afterwards

Thread 60: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5461133-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-60 16 December 2025 to 8 January 2026

Thread 61: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5472628-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-61 8 January 2026 to 3 August 2026

Thread 62: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5562302-sandie-peggie-vs-nhs-fife-health-board-and-dr-beth-upton-following-employment-tribunal-judgment-thread-62 3 August 2026 to 24 September 2026

Is he here, being bullied? How is he being bullied if people are talking about him, not to him? There's no reasonable expectation that he is here to see it / read it

It's online bullying. The person is never present as it takes place online.

Personally I think we should applaud our latest TRSOH nitpicking derailer for allowing us to remind everybody of DU's disgraceful actions and the culpability of NHS Fife in indulging one man's desires over their duty of care to their female employee's sex-based rights. 👏

If you want to see the evidence behind why posters are calling him a sexist pig, it’s all here in the 63 threads. Find the threads that cover the live proceedings and read them. There’s your evidence. You don’t need to clutter this thread here.

I don't know, I met reps like this, being in the Union is a paid skive for them, he might well have thought SP was lucky because she could get time off and be paid. Score.
Although I agree it's terrible advice I'm not sure there was much more than a grifter grifting thought behind it.

Is it because you don't know how to start a new thread that you say this and are nevertheless still here? Depending on exactly which version of the Mumsnet interface you're using, you should be able to do something like click the "Feminism: Sex and gender discussions" header or an arrow to the left of it, near the top of the screen, to get to the forum top level where you should see a "Start thread" button. If you press it and follow your nose you should end up with a thread where you can explain what "trans" is and many people will be interested in discussing it with you. Thanks.

MN is an online discussion forum.

Anyhoo...the "treat it as a paid holiday" advice is actually something I've heard said before in disciplinary suspensions. It seems to be along the lines of "chin up" in terms of how useful it is because it totally underplay the fear someone will have about the long term ramifications for their work / career / paying bills etc

I think it could be a reasonable thing to say to try to make a small joke where it is supported by competent advice and plans, but that was sorely lacking here.

Oh wait, have I just suggested it's the Bananarama defence? 🤔

To be clear , I never intended to start a conversation about what being trans is (not least I'm aware that's futile).

My interventions on this thread were two fold:

1. to ask what the phrase "claims to be a trans woman" was serving in the original OP, as my understanding is that there was never any legal question about whether DU was trans or not.

2. To suggest we can discuss the legal and policy issues, including from a gender critical perspective without an online pile on of vicious bullying of a real person because of their identity.

Im here because im very interested in the legal case and would like to hear about the issues / facts, without being exposed to this kind of poison. It's disappointing that doesn't seem to be possible on mumsnet and I wish there was better moderation to facilitate that.

Lacksie, nobody was talking about Upton on this thread until you raised this tiny point of wording and got responses. If you stop talking about him, so will everybody else, because he is on the other side of the world and isn't party to this case.

T

Might I suggest you skip past the posts you find 'poison' and concentrate on the post you like instead, accept you don't have the power to change the world to suit you.

he is on the other side of the world and isn't party to this case

Agree 👍🏻. Happy to move on as no need to talk about an individual that isn't involved in this case.

I thought online bullying was sending the messages directly to the person. If anyone has been doing that to Upton, please stop.

Anyway...regarding the 'extended holiday', does being suspended affect pension contributions, length of service and the like?

Anyway...regarding the 'extended holiday', does being suspended affect pension contributions, length of service and the like?

I think not (and the first AI engine to hand, when I put the question in prefaced by "in the UK", concurs). However, many nurses get a lot of their pay from overtime, which won't be available when they are suspended.

So as I understand there is no policy now in existence to prevent the NHS in Scotland from implementing an emergency policy regarding single sex spaces and women’s rights as per work place health and safety and the EQA.

That would easily prevent, nasty, unpleasant, entitled, MYSOGINISTS, SEXIST PIGS, SEXUAL PREDATORS, MEN PRETENDING TO BE WOMEN, and the like from invading women's spaces.

That as I see it could have easily been implemented, which the RCN failed to pursue.

I do believe that is what this thread and the legal case is all about. And some of us on here call a spade a spade.

However, many nurses get a lot of their pay from overtime, which won't be available when they are suspended.

This would be true for Sandie Peggie as she worked permanent nights.

Suspension on full pay is usual in these circumstances and that means you keep your length of service and pension contributions etc.

I'd be interested - apologies if this has already been covered - but do the claims against the individual staff members concern different alleged actions, or is SP relying on new evidence or legal arguments? Since her victimisation and discrimination claims, and much of her harassment claim against NHS Fife, were dismissed in the earlier tribunal...

You don't get your shift allowances and unsocials pay though, it's your basic salary only. So that affects your take home at least. Unless you're saying it's protected pay and you get those taken into account and what they pay you (i.e. an average of your last x months' pay).

This case is purely about whether Sandies Union discriminated against her. No named individuals.

The original case, which is being appealed, had two respondents a) NHS Fife b) Dr Upton.

There is also a further case which we believe names at least three people individually because they potentially discriminated against Sandie.

The 63 threads cover all the cases.

Lacksie seems to be invested in bringing Upton up in a thread which is about the RCN. And making this new case all about Upton. Who must not be called a man, a bully or have the reasons for his choice to cross dress questioned - none of which are relevant to the discussion here because not everything is about gender or one, particularly tedious trans id man.

My world clock tells me it’s about 7.30pm in Brisbane.

Lacskie, don’t suppose you’re posting from Port Macquarie?

Thanks I did know that but forgot Sandie was on nights.

Suspension, is supposed to be a neutral act, and not deemed as a punishment.

it is common practice to pay a person their usual renumeration including shift allowances and standard overtime they normally do.

Oh I see, thanks.

I was referring to this in the OP: "Additional legal claims have been raised. Sandie Peggie is taking action against the Royal College of Nursing, against three senior managers who were witnesses in the employment tribunal - Dr Kate Searle, Dr Maggie Currer and Esther Davidson, against Carol Potter, the chief executive of NHS Fife, for victimisation, against NHS Fife for discrimination, and against its director of people and culture David Miller for harassment. In addition, Sandie Peggie is being investigated by the Nursing and Midwifery Council over fitness to practice." so thought this was also part of the discussion.

Is there a limit on how long people get paid while on suspension? Is she about to time out and have no income? I really hope not