Trans row nurse tells tribunal she ‘felt discriminated against’ by her union

A nurse who objected to sharing a changing room with a transgender doctor has said she felt “discriminated against” by her union after raising the complaint.

Sandie Peggie, who worked for NHS Fife for more than 30 years, won a partial victory against her employer after a tribunal in December 2025, when a judge upheld her harassment claim against the health board but dismissed claims of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation.

Now Peggie has begun a new tribunal proceeding, this time against her trade union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which she accuses of failing to adequately support her in her original employment dispute. The union denies all allegations.

Giving evidence on the first day of the tribunal, Peggie said she had originally spoken to her RCN representative, Stuart Fraser, in January 2024 after being placed on special leave by NHS Fife. She told the tribunal: “I felt like he thought I was being disciplined because I had done something wrong.”

Peggie said Fraser was “non-committal” in their first conversation, and did not seem to agree with her that Dr Beth Upton should not be allowed in female changing areas. She said she felt she was being discriminated against and that she was not being supported, but acknowledged she did not say this to Fraser at the time.

She told the tribunal that by February 2024 she had “lost faith” in the RCN, because Fraser had not mentioned legal support in their earlier conversation.

Of the circumstances surrounding her original tribunal claim, Peggie said there had been “general chit chat” among NHS Fife staff about the use of a women’s changing room in Kirkcaldy’s Victoria hospital by Upton.

When asked why no colleagues had given evidence to support her case she said: “I think possibly it was fear … They had seen the way I had been treated at the hospital by senior staff members.”

Peggie’s case further claims that the union refused a request for legal support in January 2025, and that it did not provide adequate support when she asked NHS Fife to commit to ensuring changing facilities should be single-sex.

She argues that the union discriminated against her because of her “gender-critical and sex realist” beliefs. Peggie said: “I felt unsupported. Mainly because I felt I had been discriminated against.”

The nurse has also appealed against the decision from her original tribunal proceedings. That case is expected to be heard in the first half of next year.

The tribunal, taking place in Dundee before judge Melanie Sangster, is expected to continue for seven days.