Nurses Penalised For Trans Complaint, Says Lawyer

NHS bosses "penalised" female nurses complaining astir a transgender female utilizing their changing room, an employment tribunal has been told.

Eight nurses are challenging a argumentation which allows nan single-sex room astatine Darlington Memorial Hospital to beryllium utilized by Rose Henderson, a biologic antheral who identifies arsenic a woman.

In closing submissions, nan nurses' barrister said they had suffered indirect discrimination, harassment and victimisation owed to County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust's Transitioning In The Workplace policy.

The spot said nan nurses had "demonised" Rose and nan argumentation conformed pinch guidance and laws astatine nan time.

The tribunal successful Newcastle has heard Rose, an operating section practitioner, had utilized nan changing room since 2019 earlier complaints were first made by female nurses from nan time room portion (DSU) successful August 2023.

The trust's argumentation allowed a personification to usage nan single-sex abstraction that conformed pinch their gender identity, and anyone of that activity who objected could alteration elsewhere.

Some 26 nurses signed a missive complaining of Rose's usage of and behaviour wrong nan changing room, pinch Rose telling nan tribunal nan allegations, which included staring astatine women getting undressed, were "false".

In his closing submission to nan tribunal, nan nurses' barrister Niazi Fetto KC said nan argumentation was "unjustifiably treated arsenic sacrosanct" by managers and "prescribed nan disadvantageous curen of biologic females".

He said nan claimants' complaints astir nan "harmful effects" were "shunned and ignored" earlier nan nurses were "penalised and buried" successful an "oppressive and ineffectual investigation process" carried retired by nan trust.

Mr Fetto said nan argumentation allowed group entree to single-sex spaces "based connected self-declared gender personality alone" and location was nary consultation pinch unit astir its implementation.

The spot was prioritising nan correct of trans group complete nan women's "right not to person to alteration successful beforehand of a personnel of nan other sex", Mr Fetto said.

The spot converted a retention room adjoining a gathering area into a changing room for those women who did not want to stock nan female-only abstraction pinch Rose, but that was "wholly inadequate and unsafe", Mr Fetto said.

He said location was "no correct successful law" for a personification pinch nan "protected characteristic of gender reassignment to usage a single-sex changing room corresponding pinch their adopted gender".

Mr Fetto besides said nan words "men" and "women" referred to successful regulations were based connected biologic sex, arsenic confirmed by nan UK Supreme Court earlier this year.

He said aggregate women had complained of Rose's behaviour successful nan changing room and it "defies belief" that each claimant was "mistaken, lying aliases making it up", adding location was a "high level of corroboration" from "diverse sources".

The trust's consequence was "determinedly not to grapple pinch nan substance" of nan complaints while astatine nan aforesaid clip "trivialising them and stigmatising those who raised them", Mr Fetto said.

Simon Cheetham KC, for nan trust, said nan nurses' "central issue" was Rose utilizing nan changing room which meant they had "chosen to interpret" thing Rose aliases nan spot did "in a antagonistic way" and done a "negative prism".

"Their single-minded pursuit of this rumor has clouded their judgement," Mr Cheetham said, adding Rose's "very beingness was seen arsenic provocative".

He besides said nan nurses' determination to speak to nan media was "unattractive" and they had made repeated allegations without "cogent evidence" and disclosures astir Rose's backstage life, which had led to Rose being publically formed arsenic a "highly predatory character".

Mr Cheetham said nan nurses' curen of Rose had been "unkind and unjustified", pinch their allegations astir behaviour "exaggerated".

The nurses had unnecessarily "demonised" Rose and were fighting a "public campaign" astir argumentation and nan "trust's curen of them arsenic a group of women", Mr Cheetham said.

He said unit were only fixed entree to single-sex spaces if they had "declared they were surviving their life afloat successful that gender", which was a "higher threshold" than nan nurses claimed.

Mr Cheetham said nan argumentation besides "accorded pinch applicable authorities and guidance astatine nan time".

He said nan spot had immoderate 8,000 labor and had to equilibrium nan "competing" authorities of those pinch nan "protected characteristics" of biologic activity and gender reassignment.

Mr Cheetham said nan "reality" nan spot faced astatine nan clip was that location were various sets of guidance that were "not consistent" pinch each other.

The tribunal judges will make their judgement connected a early day but said it was improbable to beryllium reached earlier Christmas.