Claimant v Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and others — 2022

The claimant, a transgender woman with dyslexia and anxiety/depression, brought claims arising from events in the Trust's catering department after she started work in July 2020. The tribunal extended time for any out-of-time complaints as just and equitable, noting the case was complex and the claimant had dyslexia and poor mental health.

The tribunal found that the Trust had taken all reasonable steps to prevent the admitted transphobic incidents in July and August 2020. It relied on the Trust's PROUD values, equality training, bespoke trans and gender-diversity training delivered to CPU staff before the claimant started, the agreed staff note about her joining the team, and the wider EDI framework. On that basis, the Trust was not liable for the admitted incidents, and the related claims were dismissed.

The tribunal rejected complaints about the investigation of those incidents and the subsequent attendance-management process. It found that the claimant was supported with paid leave, occupational health referrals, temporary reduced hours and eventually a transfer to the Royal Hallamshire. The requests for a handwriting sample, the delay in the investigation report, the delay in the grievance appeal, the invitation to a stage 3 attendance review meeting, the reduction to half pay, and the refusal to expunge sickness absence from the record were not found to be discriminatory or victimising. The disability-related reasonable-adjustment and s15 complaints were dismissed because the Trust's approach to attendance management and sick pay was found to be proportionate and reasonable.

In June 2021, the tribunal accepted that Mrs Townsend accurately reported a conversation in which the claimant said she was very hot and had taken her underwear off, and it found Mrs Hawkshaw's separate 'dummy' comment was not because of gender reassignment or disability. However, at the meeting on 25 June 2021, Mrs Hawkshaw asked the claimant a series of questions about whether she wore or changed her underwear at work and whether she had been inappropriately dressed in the female changing room. The tribunal found those questions were asked because the claimant was transgender, were detrimental, and amounted to less favourable treatment because of gender reassignment.

All other claims were dismissed, including the harassment claims related to gender reassignment, disability, and sex or sexual nature, and the victimisation claims. No remedy was assessed in this liability judgment.