Dr Beth Upton and nurse Sandie Peggie (Image: Express)
Women are being forced into court to stop men using their changing rooms at work because regulators have failed to enforce the law, campaigners warned.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) was told it was “well past time” for it to issue clear guidance to employers about single-sex spaces.
It follows a number of high profile legal cases, including nurse Sandie Peggie and civil servant Eleanor Frances, who have been left fighting for their rights in the workplace.
Human rights charity Sex Matters has written to the HSE to demand action.
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Chief executive officer Maya Forstater said: “It’s scandalous that women such as Sandie Peggie and Eleanor Frances have had to put everything on the line because regulators have failed to uphold laws that have been in place for decades.
“Not only have these legal challenges come at great personal cost, but fighting them has been an inexcusable waste of scarce public funds.
“It is well past time for the Health and Safety Executive to act. It is responsible by statute for enforcing the 1992 regulations that are meant to guarantee safe workplaces.
“It needs to make crystal clear to all employers and public bodies that they are legally bound to provide separate-sex washing, changing and toilet facilities.
“Upholding and enforcing the law is why the HSE and other regulators are paid for out of our taxes. We need to see them do their jobs, and that includes protecting women’s rights.”
Nurse Sandie Peggie took NHS Fife to tribunal after she was suspended when she objected to sharing a female changing room with Dr Beth Upton, who is biologically male but identifies as female.
The judge in the case has ruled that the doctor can be called a man.
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During the tribunal Dr Upton said the term biologically female or biologically male is “completely nebulous”.
He added: “It has no defined or agreed meaning in science, as far as I’m aware. I’m not a robot, so I am biological and my identity is female. Without wanting to appeal to the dictionary too much, I’m biologically female.”
Earlier this year, civil service whistleblower Eleanor Frances, won an 18-month legal battle with her former employers after she was forced out of her job for raising concerns about how Whitehall departments had been captured by transgender ideology.
In a letter to the HSE, Ms Forstater said: “Individual women should not have to negotiate with male colleagues or managers to secure basic workplace facilities that are required by law. Nor should they have to bring individual legal cases, but increasingly they do.”
She added: “The lack of explicit clear general guidance and dismissal of complaints such as those of Frances has contributed to women around the country being forced to share changing rooms, toilets and shower rooms with male colleagues, and bullied, called “transphobic” and placed under investigation if they refuse or complain.”
A Health and Safety Executive spokesman said: “Our guidance makes it clear that suitable facilities must be provided in workplaces.”