Sandie Peggie's union tribunal opens in Dundee as nurse says RCN 'wasn't taking it as seriously as I was'

Sandie Peggie, the Fife nurse at the centre of NHS Fife’s changing-room row, has taken her own union to an employment tribunal, claiming the Royal College of Nursing discriminated against her because of her gender-critical beliefs.

Peggie was the first witness called when the hearing opened in Dundee before employment judge Melanie Sangster. She said RCN representative Stuart Fraser “wasn’t taking it as seriously as I was” after she was placed on special leave: “I felt like he thought I was being disciplined because I had done something wrong.”

Her legal team is expected to argue the RCN failed to advise her in January 2024, after her suspension, that she had a legal claim against her employer, and refused her January 2025 request for legal support. The RCN denies the claims.

David Hay KC, for the RCN, noted she had spent about 40 minutes on a call with Fraser on 8 January 2024 with no mention of feeling discriminated against. Peggie said she had not worked since December 2024 — first taking leave after her father’s death, then off work with health difficulties — and that an assurance biological men would not access women-only changing areas was never forthcoming.

Her first tribunal, against NHS Fife and Dr Beth Upton over a female changing room at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital in December 2023, ended in December 2025 with harassment upheld on four procedural failings and her remaining claims dismissed. The hearing sits on 23–25 and 28–30 September and 1 October.

Sources

• BBC News (23 Sept 2026): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cvrl6wpnxwz9o
• The Times, “Sandie Peggie: Union pushed me to leave department in trans row” (updated 23 Sept 2026): https://www.thetimes.com/uk/scotland/article/sandie-peggie-union-trans-row-scotland-3ds5bms2c
• PA copy via Perspective Media, “Trans row nurse Sandie Peggie says union ‘did not take it as seriously as I did’” (23 Sept 2026): https://www.perspectivemedia.com/trans-row-nurse-sandie-peggie-says-union-did-not-take-it-as-seriously-as-i-did
• Judiciary.uk press summary, Peggie v Fife Health Board and another: https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Peggie-v-Fife-Health-Board-and-another-Press-Summary.pdf