The nurse told a press conference she would “certainly not be giving up this legal fight any time soon”.
Sandie Peggie has announced she will appeal an employment tribunal ruling after judges were today forced to correct a “made up” quote.
The nurse launched a legal action against her employers NHS Fife last year after she was suspended following a row with a trans colleague over the use of a female changing room at the Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy.
A long-awaited judgement issued this week found Peggie had been unlawfully harassed by health bosses over the matter – but dismissed her other claims including victimisation and discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
Speaking at a press conference in Dundee, the mum-of-two said: “I’m not a campaigner – and I had never heard of the phrase ‘gender critical’ when I first raised complaints over two years ago about my employer’s decision to allow men into female-only changing rooms.
“I just knew instinctively that it wasn’t right that women were expected to undress in front of men in private spaces, and I still believe this to be the case.
“While I am delighted the tribunal was critical of Fife Health Board, and found they had harassed me, their judgement, I believe, falls short in many respects and that is why I certainly won’t be giving up this legal fight anytime soon.”
Peggie, from Glenrothes, thanked her husband Darren and daughters Nicole and Emma for their support during the tribunal process, which has made headline news across the UK and even the US.
Margaret Gribbon, Peggie’s solicitor, claimed some of the findings in the employment tribunal’s judgment are “hugely problematic”.
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She said: “Fife Health Board unlawfully harassed Sandie Peggie over a lengthy period of time in 2024 in respect of four separate matters.
“This would be inexcusable for any employer, but particularly so in a large public sector organisation like NHS Fife. Given the tribunal’s findings that Fife Health Board committed multiple breaches of the Equality Act and persistently failed to comply with a tribunal order, my client is dismayed and troubled that senior politicians in Scotland saw fit to repeatedly express their full confidence in the board.”
Gribbon continued: “Some of the findings are hugely problematic. For instance, the judgement taking responsibility for female employees to raise complaints if they feel uncomfortable sharing single sex spaces with men.
“When Sandie objected, she was suspended and subjected to an unreasonably lengthy disciplinary investigation.”
The solicitor continued: “It emerged during the hearings that Fife Health Board embarked on an archaeological dig to find materials to discredit her. It was even suggested to Sandie by Fife Health Board KCs during cross examination that she had lied about experiencing a menstrual flood during Christmas Eve 2023.
“Against that background, it’s difficult to envisage what women would contemplate raising a complaint of this nature. In many work places there is a climate of fear around this issue, exacerbated by the failure of many trade unions, like Sandie’s, to advocate for female members to seek to protect their hard-won rights to single sex spaces.
“The judgement places employers in the position of having to make decisions about single sex workplace facilities based on the physical appearance of transgender employees, and by asking them intrusive questions.
“For these reasons and more, I can confirm the tribunal’s judgement will be appealed, and work on this is already underway.”
It comes after the tribunal service had earlier been forced to issue an amended version of its 300-page judgement amid claims it had included a made up quote.
The document published on Monday includes a reference to a line supposedly from a leading gender campaigner’s separate tribunal from 2021.
Maya Forstater, who leads the charity Sex Matters, said: “I know that judgment inside out, and I thought [after reading the NHS Fife judgment], those words are not there.”
Tory MSP Tess White said: “It’s extremely concerning that the Sandie Peggie judgment included a quote that appears to have been completely fabricated.
“An urgent explanation of how this was allowed to happen is now essential. The letter of the law is clear – women, that means biological women, are entitled to single-sex spaces.
“But this tribunal has delivered a confusing judgment that will only further erode women’s faith that their legal rights and protections will be upheld in the workplace.”
Forstater said: “I knew this was wrong, and it’s good it’s being amended, but I am astonished that it happened and I would like an explanation of how it happened.
“Claimants and witnesses going to court swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, and we expect nothing less from the judges.
“There are several errors in the judgment beyond the made-up quote attributed to my judgment.
“There is a partial quote from the Supreme Court’s judgment in the For Women Scotland case that has been edited so that its meaning is completely reversed.
“Mistakes like this severely undermine people’s confidence in the legal process.”
Speaking to reporters at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday, John Swinney was asked about whether he still had faith in the tribunal’s judgement.
The First Minister said: “I simply consider the outcome of independent processes like an employment tribunal and look for the implications for our public bodies and the Government.
“The conduct of an employment tribunal is a completely independent process to Government.”
NHS Fife said it was “aware that the tribunal have now updated the judgment”.
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