A former Royal College of Nursing (RCN) worker has said the union made her feel like a “bigot” due to her opinions on sex and gender.
Former RCN policy officer Lisa Mackenzie gave evidence on the second day of nurse Sandie Peggie’s employment tribunal against the RCN on Thursday. Ms Mackenzie resigned from her post in 2019 after being investigated by her employer for work she was doing outside of her role with the union. The tribunal heard she had become personally interested in sex and gender policies in 2018.
Investigation over external work
Shortly afterwards, she co-founded a gender-critical policy analysis group known as Murray Blackburn Mackenzie. She told her RCN line manager about a draft article she had written for the group, and offered to share it with her following a contentious gender-critical event in Edinburgh in June 2019 which sparked large protests. This led to an investigation into a possible breach of contract within the RCN.
The investigation did not lead to full disciplinary action against Ms MacKenzie, but she said she was made to feel as though the article she wrote was “problematic from RCN’s point of view”. She was also told she had broken the terms of her employment contract that said she had to seek permission to write for any publication external to her RCN work.
“I was never told during the investigation which views I held were problematic for RCN,” Ms MacKenzie told the tribunal. “I was relieved that it hadn’t proceeded to full disciplinary action against me, but I was obviously upset. It was the worst experience of my working life, to be under investigation by my employer and not to have clarity about what was wrong about the work I was doing outside of the RCN.”
Values questioned
Ms MacKenzie said her line manager asked her to write a statement about her values, and she described having a conversation that “went around in circles”. She also told the tribunal she was asked to “consider whether her values align with the RCN’s values” and its equalities and diversity statement. “I was upset about what she said,” the tribunal heard. “It felt like a slight on me.”
Ms MacKenzie said it made her feel like the union was attempting to characterise her and her values as “deficient” or as a “bigot”.
Under cross-examination, RCN lawyer David Hay KC said the investigation identified Ms MacKenzie’s RCN portfolio included the Scottish Prison Service, and it concluded her external work and criticism of the prison service “may have impacted on RCN’s own work”.
Peggie’s case against RCN
Nurse Ms Peggie has brought the legal case against the RCN over what she claims was direct discrimination over her gender-critical beliefs. Ms Peggie previously brought a case against NHS Fife after sharing a changing room with transgender medic Dr Beth Upton at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital in December 2023.
The first employment tribunal awarded Ms Peggie a partial victory against the health board in December last year, upholding claims of harassment against her employer, but dismissing allegations of discrimination, indirect discrimination and victimisation.
The high-profile case became a flashpoint in a row over gender rights, with a number of gender-critical groups, along with author JK Rowling, voicing support for the nurse.
Ms Peggie, who claims the RCN failed to adequately support her in the dispute with the health board, was the first to give evidence at the new tribunal on Wednesday. The nurse’s case also claims the union refused her request for legal support in January 2025 during NHS Fife’s handling of her disciplinary investigation.
Ms Peggie is seeking a finding that the union discriminated against her because of her gender-critical and sex realist beliefs. The RCN denies the claims.
The tribunal, taking place before employment judge Melanie Sangster in Dundee, continues.
