A transgender NHS worker has won a Tribunal case after receiving abuse from her manager and colleagues. She claims to have felt ‘embarrassed’ after her manager confronted her regarding staff concerns about her using the female changing rooms, whilst also finding an offensive note in her locker. The male-born employee, who was transitioning to be a woman at the time, also overheard female colleagues saying, 'I am sick to death of this bloke with a d**k pretending to be a woman'. The employee, whose identity cannot be revealed for legal reasons, has successfully sued Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Yorkshire, for gender reassignment discrimination.

The Equality Act 2010 defines nine protected characteristics – factors where an employer has a duty to protect employees against discrimination. One of these nine characteristics is gender reassignment,

The Employment Tribunal in Leeds, Yorkshire, heard she started work in a non-medical job in the summer of 2020, based within a unit at Northern General Hospital, which is part of the Trust. Because she had been transitioning, had been out of work, and suffered emotional issues, the employee was anxious about joining. The Trust – which gives staff equality and diversity training – encouraged workers to be respectful to her, but soon after joining she suffered abuse.

The Tribunal said:

“There is no dispute that at about 7am she found a note that had been posted into her locker in the ladies' changing room that said ‘get out you tranny freak’.”

The same day, she suffered 'deeply offensive and unacceptable' abuse while she was in a cubicle in the changing room and overheard two female colleagues speaking outside the cubicle, plotting to get rid of her.

The identity of the authors of the notes and the women who made the offensive comments were never uncovered despite an investigation, although the trust admitted all three incidents happened.

In June 2021, the employee was left 'embarrassed' when she was questioned by her manager about whether she wore underwear at work, or 'if she wore it in general'. Employment Judge Sarah-Jane Davies concluded that the female manager asked her those questions because she is transgender, saying:

“A concern about the woman's state of undress in the changing rooms was likely to be connected with the fact that she is a transgender woman. This was a communal changing room with a shower cubicle. It did not seem to the Tribunal likely that there would have been a concern about a cisgender woman in a state of undress while changing in such a changing room. The Tribunal therefore concluded that [the manager] asked the questions because of a concern that the woman as a transgender woman might be in a state of undress in the female changing room. That was because of gender reassignment. Mrs Hawkshaw would not have asked the questions of a cisgender woman.”

The employee won her claim of gender reassignment discrimination related to the questioning regarding her underwear, but her other claims of discrimination failed because the Tribunal ruled the Trust supported her and dealt with her complaints appropriately. The failed claims included harassment related to sex, victimisation, disability discrimination, and a separate gender reassignment discrimination claim. The employee resigned from the Trust in 2021.