NHS nurses harassed

Two recent cases highlight continuing harassment and discrimination faced by nurses who refuse to accept the imposition of males claiming to be female.

In both instances the female nurses have succeeded in their action. Shamefully their trade unions did not support them.

Forcing

An employment tribunal in Newcastle has ruled that the County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust committed unlawful harassment and indirect sex discrimination by forcing female staff to share changing facilities with a biological male who claimed to be a woman.

According to the judgment the employer created a “a hostile, humiliating and degrading environment” for the nurses. The trust’s Transitioning in the Workplace Policy placed self-defined gender identity above biological sex.

‘The trust suggested they needed “re-education”.’

When surgical nursing staff complained about having to share changing facilities, the trust suggested they needed “re-education” In response, 26 nursing staff signed a letter complaining of the use of and conduct in the changing rooms by a biological male. Eight of them took the trust to the tribunal.

Their trade union Unison not only ignored them and failed to support them, but also chose to represent the biological male who raised a complaint of bullying and harassment against the nurses. The union preferring to represent him rather than the collective of long-standing union members.

Accused

Indeed, Unison’s then president (subsequently suspended by the union) accused them of bigotry. The nurses have now set up the Darlington Nursing Union.

Yet rather than learn from this, Unison’s leadership issued a statement in response to the judgement saying, that the union’s policy “remains the same" and affirming that it “stands by its beliefs in the rights of our trans, non-binary and gender diverse members”.

Wrong pronoun

In a separate case, a South London nurse was suspended by Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust, but has now been reinstated. The reason given for the suspension was that she used the wrong pronoun to a patient.

In this case the a patient was a paedophile prisoner brought to the hospital from a high-security men’s prison for treatment. That person claims to now be female. The nurse was trying to insert a urinary catheter into the prisoner’s penis when she addressed him as “Mr”, prompting a tirade of racist abuse.

Denied support

Not only was the nurse suspended, she was also referred to the regulatory body for nursing, the Nursing and Midwifery Council. And, as in Darlington, she was denied support from her trade union, the Royal College of Nursing.

Both Unison and the Royal College of Nursing’s members are predominantly women.