'No decision before Christmas' in transgender nurse tribunal

JUDGMENT in the legal challenge brought by seven nurses over a transgender colleague's use of the female changing rooms at work will not be given before Christmas, an employment tribunal judge has said.

- By TOM WILKINSON, PA

Day surgery unit staff at Darlington Memorial Hospital are bringing a claim against Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust after Rose Henderson, who was born male but identifies as a woman, was allowed to use the women's changing facilities.

Sitting in Newcastle, employment tribunal judge Seamus Sweeney heard closing submissions from the claimants and respondents on Tuesday.

At the end of the hearing, he said: “You will not get a decision this side of Christmas, given our commitments. It will be uppermost in our minds, everyone needs to get a decision on this. Please just bear with us and have some patience.”

The nurses claim that Rose stared at colleagues in the female changing rooms, repeatedly asked one of them why she was not getting changed and walked around the room in boxer shorts.

Giving evidence last week, Rose said: “I am not the individual (the claimants) have painted me to be” and described how “upsetting” it had been to see “hordes of people” posting insults online after the case came to public attention.