United Kingdom: Single-sex Facilities in the Workplace

In brief

Bringing further controversy and uncertainty to how employers should balance competing protected characteristics, a Scottish employment tribunal held that an employer had unlawfully harassed a female nurse by allowing a transgender doctor to continue to use the female changing room after the nurse complained. In an article for PLC magazine, Monica Kurnatowska draws a number of practical lessons from the case.

Key takeaways

• In Peggie v NHS Fife Health Board and another, ETS/4104864/24), an employment tribunal held that a female nurse had been unlawfully harassed by her employer when it failed to revoke permission granted to a doctor agreed to have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment to use the female changing room after her complaints, by taking an unreasonable length of time to investigate allegations made against her, the manner in which she was told of patient care allegations against her, and instructing her not to discuss her case.
• The employment tribunal did not uphold her other claims. It held that barring the doctor from the female changing rooms would prioritise the rights of women over those with the protected characteristic of gender reassignment and that, in dealing with conflicting rights at work, the correct approach is to follow a four-stage proportionality exercise. The tribunal did not find that the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, which require employers to provide single-sex changing facilities where employees need to remove more than outer clothing (as well as single sex toilet and washing facilities) gave specific protection to women, nor that the tribunal had jurisdiction to enforce them.
• The decision is highly controversial, suggesting that in some circumstances, employees using single-sex facilities on the basis of their gender identity will be lawful, but that in others, it may constitute harassment or discrimination against other employees.
• Click here to read the full article, including practical lessons for employers to consider. This article first appeared in the January 2026 edition of PLC Magazine.
• For more information on what this development means for you, please get in touch with your usual Baker McKenzie contact.