Sandie Peggie, currently in the middle of a tribunal claim against her employer, has now launched legal action against her trade union.
Peggie was suspended by NHS Fife in 2024 over claims she bullied and harassed Dr Beth Upton, a trans doctor, after the two shared a changing room at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
She has taken the health board to tribunal claiming sexual harassment and harassment related to a protected belief, which is now in progress in Dundee.
Peggie was last week cleared of internal allegations of harassment by NHS Fife, just one day before her tribunal hearing resumed.
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But the nurse is now suing the Royal College of Nursing over claims the union “refused to represent” her because of her gender-critical beliefs.
Peggie said she had contacted her union for advice after she was suspended in early 2024.
Her lawyer, Margaret Gribbon, said the RCN “repeatedly failed to exercise their industrial muscle to advocate for female members distressed because they are being deprived of genuine single-sex spaces to dress and undress at work”.
“Had the RCN fulfilled the conventional role of a trade union, it is less likely that Sandie would have faced the ordeal of an 18-month disciplinary process and having to raise legal proceedings against Fife Health Board,” she said.
Peggie’s legal team refer to RCN guidelines published in 2021, which state that members have a right to receive “support, guidance or representation regardless of your ethnic or national origins, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation, gender reassignment, disability, marital status or civil partnership, age, pregnancy or any complaint you may have previously made about the RCN itself”.
The guidelines also state that the union will give a “clear and detailed explanation” if it cannot provide advice or representation.
A spokesperson for the RCN said the union has responded to the claim, and denies the allegations.
Peggie’s tribunal has so far heard that the nurse had encountered Dr Upton, a trans woman, on two occasions in the hospital changing room. One occasion was on Christmas Eve in 2023 when Peggie needed to change urgently due to heavy menstrual bleeding.
Peggie said she was “embarrassed and intimidated” by sharing the space. Dr Upton complained to the health board that her complaint had been tantamount to bullying and the nurse was suspended.
The tribunal was adjourned in February and resumed last week. It is expected to run until the end of this week.
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