Representative image showing washrooms
Credit: iStock Photo
London: British employers can allow trans women to use female changing rooms despite a landmark ruling on the definition of a woman under equality laws, but alternative solutions may be necessary where complaints are raised, a tribunal said on Monday.
Transgender rights have become highly politicised in Britain and elsewhere as broad advances in LGBT rights have triggered a backlash among social conservatives and some feminists.
An employment tribunal said in a summary of its judgment that a recent decision by the UK Supreme Court – which said that only biological women meet the definition of women under the UK's Equality Act – did not make it "inherently unlawful" for a trans woman to use a female changing room.
The tribunal also ruled, however, that workplaces permitting someone to use the changing room of their reassigned gender was not necessarily lawful either, raising the prospect of future legal disputes.
Sandie Peggie, a nurse in Scotland, had sued her employer after objecting to sharing a changing room with a trans woman who was a resident doctor.
Peggie alleged she had been harassed by the National Health Service in Fife and discriminated against for her gender-critical views.
The employment tribunal ruled that the Board had harassed Peggie by failing to revoke the trans woman's permission to use the female changing room after Peggie complained.
Fife Health Board also took an unreasonable length of time to investigate allegations made against Peggie after she spoke to the trans woman. But the tribunal dismissed the rest of her case.
NHS Fife said in a statement that it believed it had been largely vindicated, but would analyse the judgment to "understand fully what it means for the organisation".
Peggie said in a statement reported by Sky News that she was "beyond relieved and delighted that the tribunal has found that my employer Fife Health Board harassed me".