Case dismissed | Worker loses legal claim over firm's policy on transgender access to women's toilets

A woman who argued that her employer’s policy allowing transgender women to use female toilets amounted to sex discrimination has lost her case at an employment tribunal in Scotland. 

The judge dismissed all three complaints - harassment, direct discrimination and indirect discrimination - after finding the policy had “no practical effect” on her working environment and did not place women at a particular disadvantage.

The claimant, B M Kelly, brought the claims against defence employer Leonardo UK Limited. She argued that the company’s “toilet access policy” - which permitted staff to use facilities aligned with their gender identity rather than their biological sex - was unlawful and had been introduced without consultation.

The tribunal accepted that, from June 2023, the company had adopted a practice “that access to toilet facilities would be based upon staff gender rather than their biological sex.”