Sandie Peggie: Employment Tribunal, associated legal claims, and related matters - thread #64

[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: www.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 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

Thread 63: www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5581909-sandie-peggie-employment-tribunal-associated-legal-claims-and-related-matters-thread-63 24 September 2026 to 27 September 2026

From TT: [stragglers!]

DH Back to p1224: last page of 7 Aug letter. U discuss the impact on yr MH. RCN advises u about counselling and welfare services and how to contact them. Do u accept?
JM RCN were ignoring why I needed help. Counselling wldnt help me
DH They're all my Qs

J I don't have any Qs, do you NC?
NC No
J That concludes your evidence. You mustnt speak to any incoming witnesses. It's a good time to have a 10 minute break.

I might have missed it in all the posts but was there ever any suggestion at any point that the man who was so abusive to JM ever presented as/identified himself to anyone as 'trans' or 'woman' or was it a spur of the moment weapon to attack a nurse he objected to on grounds of race? I couldn't find it anywhere in any of the reports at the time.

I'm trapped in my chair.

Can someone bring me sustenance.

No re-examination - do you think NC just thought better to leave well alone?

the RCN's defence is clearly along the lines of "these women didn't give us a chance / time to help them...'
Poor Jennifer, she is so angry and upset.

No intervention from the judge this time

Yes, I think so. There were things NC could have pulled on if JM had been able to give succinct factual answers, but it didn't look as though she was going to be able to do it.

Beth is in the room, looking fab as always.

He was also screaming at JM, and tried to, physically and violently, lunge at her. Thank goodness those colleagues intervened to stop him as she could have been badly physically injured by him too.

Also, we don’t know if he had being up to this sh1t with anyone else there (even with another patient). I suspect if anything had happened (and I don’t know if it did or didn’t), everyone would know that their comfort and safety might have been treated as secondary to enabling ‘Mister screaming, racist, violent paedophile’ to be his true self. They wouldn’t have been wrong as we see from the hospital, and RCN big nobs. Maybe it is just something I think, but these org’s seem to worship the ground these men who abuse women, and children, walk on.

Might be interesting to know how RCN proceed with other cases where legal advice is needed. Would it be possible for the claimant to ask for this sort of Information that is not directly related to the case?

That's why I think that the witness order might do NC a favour here, with Beth Hutchison providing a much clearer and on-point demonstration of what it's like to interact with the RCN as a member needing help over a GC matter.

Yes - perhaps the strategy is that from JM we take a picture of how damaging their approach can be, but we don't worry much about the facts, and now BH's evidence gives us the facts? Let's see...

Beth being sworn in

Agree.

My impression from JM's testimony was that it didn't give weight to the argument that RCN is systemically GI captured, but also that it didn't show that it isn't. Basically a 0-0 draw and not worth putting JM through any more.

From TT:

We will shortly be returning for the second morning session of day 4 of Peggie v RCN. The earlier session is here:
t.co/EeRL7gjQuP

The next witness will be Bethany Hutchison (BH) of Darlington nurses (DN) employment tribunal.

Him pointing out that her correspondence to the RCN doesn't contain any criticism of them, completely misses the point that JM was desperate for help. I think I would tread very carefully in writing to the only organisation that was supposed to help in that situation. I would be desperate to keep them onside. Ffs she had been called a danger to the public! No wonder she was scared, she was a single mother on the brink of losing her career. You're not going to start alienating what appeared to be the only source of help.

The thing is if only one of these women was saying that the RCN was unsupportive it would probably not hold much weight but the fact that 3 separate nurses are all saying the same thing. The RCN obv has a tactic of dragging their feet to try and avoid supporting what they consider to be unworthy members.

NC is definitely bunged up today!

I think it would be up to the RCN to present that evidence. “Here are some other cases where we were equally shit at supporting our members.”

They could throw up a few witnesses who would testify to that.

SP only has to show facts that the tribunal “could” interpret as motivated by her GI belief. Then the RCN has to show the behaviour was for another reason. “We’re that crap all the time” would do.

Yes I remember that. He had police officers with him and had to be restrained. Clearly a dangerous individual. A terrifying situation and Jennifer's employer couldn't care less about her wellbeing. And the NMC branded her a danger to the public. She was at a final written warning stage and RNC were all uuummh ermmm ahhh.

A normal union would have come down on the NHS like a ton of bricks over this.

I wonder if there are any RCN people in the courthouse today and if they can look at Jennifer in the face.

I dunno..Surely it’s a net negative to put forward a highly emotional witness who isn’t able to offer any facts or evidence relevant to your case? It seems like quite a risky strategy.

From TT:

We return.
J [BH sworn in]
NC Good morning [confirms name] You are one of the 26 nurses who complained about nurse Rose and the 7 claimants who were succesfful? How many RCN members off the 7
BH I blieve 7. Also Unison. We asked RCN..it was Jo who put out feelers for legal

advice. We were told no as had been in touch w other orgs but these werent detailed discussions. We did get some workplace representation - a meeting w HR on 24 June. An RCN rep was there in a listening role only

Mic drop!

He completely ignored the power imbalance between the mighty union and the lone woman scared of losing everything..

She is VERY clear and articulate.