EXPERT WITNESS: Single-sex facilities

The right of biological women to single-sex spaces and facilities in the workplace: the case of Sandie Peggie

Summary:

In the first of two articles on gender matters in occupational health, Diana Kloss explores the legal issues of providing single-sex facilities, including those raised in the employment tribunal case of Sandie Peggie v NHS Fife.

Sandie Peggie is an accident and emergency (A and E) nurse employed by NHS Fife in Scotland. She was subjected to a suspension and disciplinary investigation by her employer after she objected to sharing the hospital’s female changing room in the A and E department with Dr Beth Upton, a biological male who identifies as a woman (transwoman), and who also works in the A and E department. Peggie complained to an employment tribunal (ET) that she had been discriminated against and sexually harassed by her employer contrary to the Equality Act 2010 (EqA) because of her genuinely held belief that biological sex is immutable and her insistence that a changing room designated for the use of females only should not be open to transwomen. She also made complaints against Upton personally, including for sexual harassment and harassment related to a protected belief.

 

Professor Diana Kloss MBE is a barrister, former part-time employment judge, and author.

 

Author: Kloss D

Tags Equality Act 2010 harassment

Occupational Health at Work June/July 2025 (vol. 22/1) pp30-33

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