Sandie Peggie has named 13 colleagues who she alleged disagreed with a decision by NHS Fife to allow a transgender doctor to share a women’s changing room.
Ms Peggie also told an employment tribunal her workplace was “very toxic”.
The nurse was suspended after she complained about having to share a changing room with trans medic Dr Beth Upton at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy, Fife, on Christmas Eve 2023.
She was placed on special leave after Dr Upton made an allegation of bullying and harassment, and cited concerns about “patient care”.
Ms Peggie has lodged a claim against NHS Fife and Dr Upton, citing the Equality Act 2010, including sexual harassment; harassment related to a protected belief; indirect discrimination; and victimisation.
On Tuesday, Ms Peggie was recalled to be questioned about evidence from other witnesses, and she said it made her “very sad” to name colleagues who had allegedly shared her concerns about single-sex changing rooms.
Ms Peggie said: “I didn’t want anybody else to be put in the same predicament.”
During re-examination by her barrister Naomi Cunningham, Ms Peggie named a total of 13 NHS Fife workers including receptionists and a consultant – some of whom she had named previously.
She also branded her workplace “very toxic”, the tribunal heard.
She admitted she had used racial slurs but said she was “brought up like that”, and said it was not a “politically correct way”.
She claimed it did not cause offence within the community where she lived, including neighbours from Chinese and Pakistani backgrounds.
Ms Peggie said the reaction from colleagues when she had been suspended was “one of shock, they couldn’t believe what had happened to me”, and she alleged Dr Upton had complained in a previous placement “because of an elderly patient in their 90s who had called him ‘son'”, the tribunal heard.
She said when she asked for a photograph of Dr Upton using the phrase “that weirdo”, it was a picture from a night out “where he looked like a man in a dress”.
Ms Peggie defended her own comments on topics such as flooding in Pakistan, and a comment about putting bacon through the letterbox of a mosque, as “dark humour”.
She was questioned by Jane Russell KC, representing Dr Upton and NHS Fife, on comments provided by two witnesses as well as comments from a Benidorm group chat of colleagues who went on holiday together.
The nurse said: “It was never my intention to offend people outside my group of what I thought was very close friends.”
Ms Peggie said she did not make a comment about putting bacon through the letterbox of a mosque, and attributed it to a paramedic, however she said: “I wouldn’t offend any Muslim people by speaking like that in front of them, it’s a comment that’s been made to one person only or between us.”
She said she had “a fear of it being built” because she was “frightened of Shariah law”, and had an objection to “illegal immigrants”, the tribunal heard.
It was put to her that two witnesses who attended her birthday lunch recalled her using “derogatory” terminology to talk about Dr Upton.
Ms Peggie said: “The only thing I was discussing at the lunch was how I felt on the changing room, and that was what I was asking people.”
The lawyer said a colleague withdrew from the Benidorm group chat, saying Ms Peggie was “relentless in her nastiness”, and that Dr Upton “does not deserve the hate campaign that is obviously being waged not only by Sandie but other staff as well”, the tribunal heard.
Ms Russell said: “You were waging a hate campaign against Dr Upton, weren’t you?”
Ms Peggie said: “No.”
Asked if she believed trans people were “pretending” to access single-sex spaces, Ms Peggie said: “I don’t have any bad feelings about trans people, I just don’t believe they should be in the women’s changing room.
“I still believe a trans woman is a man and shouldn’t be in the female changing room.”
The KC was admonished when she asked who was paying for Ms Peggie’s legal representation.
Another message was put to Ms Peggie, where she said “those policies are a… minefield, been looking at menstrual privacy stuff as well”, the tribunal heard.
Ms Russell said: “Was this detail about the menstrual flood a cover to disguise the fact that the only reason you went to the changing room was to confront Dr Upton?”
Ms Peggie said: “No.”
The tribunal has been adjourned until September.
