Why simple good manners could have avoided Sandie Peggie-Beth Upton tribunal

The row between nurse Sandie Peggie and transgender woman Dr Beth Upton over the latter’s use of the female changing room should have been foreseen by NHS Fife

This is the topic of my Scotsman column, published in today's paper (4th March 2025).

I had a great old CID boss many years ago who hated being sent on training courses of any kind, particularly management courses. He was a great detective and a charismatic leader, and he had a very simple formula for good management with three elements.

Remember what you are there for, he would say, always keep your eye on the task, use your common sense and always be courteous, no matter who you are dealing with. It sounds simplistic but it worked and, over the years, I have applied his rules to many seemingly intractable disputes and particularly the work of employment tribunals.

Our tribunal service, part of the court services and criminal justice system, usually operates behind closed doors, and like the rest of our court system is inundated with work, with huge backlogs. We usually hear little of their work but now and again a tribunal case will flare onto the front pages offering us a rare insight.

Were there really no alternative changing facilities that would have avoided discomfort for both nurse Sandie Peggie, centre, above, and Dr Beth Upton? (Picture: Andrew Milligan) | PA

Immutable nature of sex

Such was the case last month when Fife Health Board was taken to an employment tribunal by a long-serving nurse, Sandie Peggie, claiming she had been subjected to unlawful harassment under the Equalities Act 2000, by being made to share a changing room with Dr Beth Upton, who was born male but is now a transgender woman.

Setting aside the biological facts of life about the immutable nature of the sex we are born with, or the recent debacle over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, let’s run my old boss’s yardstick against this long-running, bitter, and very expensive dispute.

Starting with the Fife Health Board. Did they prioritise their main task, to deliver health care, when they decided it was a good idea to assign the same dressing room to nurse Peggie and other females along with Dr Upton, a transgender woman?

Did they think this would enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of health care delivery? Did it not occur to them that this allocation might create disharmony and upset among some members of staff, thus affecting their work?

Was this a common-sense decision given the foreseeable consequences? Was there really no alternative for changing facilities within a large hospital that would have avoided discomfort for both nurse Peggie and Dr Upton?

Turning to Dr Upton, as a senior member of staff. did she think it was in the interests of the efficient working of the hospital to place herself in a changing room where she suspected her presence might cause distress?

Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should. Was it good sense or good manners to put junior members of staff in a situation where they may have felt fearful or alarmed?

Fortunately, I do not live under the tender care of Fife Health Board, but if I did , and was stuck on some long list awaiting treatment, I would be wondering whether this long and expensive dispute could have been better handled.

Did those responsible for managing this affair always prioritise their role of health care, and could decent proactive management have resolved or avoided the problem in the first place?

The tribunal will report in due course but sometimes the answers to these questions are not complicated – just common sense and good manners.

My Scotsman article can also be read here.