Social worker wins harassment claim against council and professional regulatory body Social Work England

A social worker has won a claim against her employer, Westminster City Council, and the professional regulatory body Social Work England in an employment tribunal for discrimination relating to her “gender critical beliefs”.

The claimant in Ms R Meade v Westminster City Council and Social Work England, Rachel Meade, is a qualified social worker and commenced employment with the council on 13 August 2001.

She is required as part of her professional registration to adhere to the professional standards as outlined by Social Work England (the second respondent).

Ms Meade said that she is a feminist and holds gender critical views. “She has spoken out about, and campaigned over many years for women’s rights”, said Employment Judge Nicolle.

Ms Meade shared gender critical posts on social media. Social Work England (SWE) received a complaint about her posts upon which she was subjected to a Fitness to Practise (“FtP”) investigation.

The FtP process concluded with a formal sanction, later withdrawn. When the council learned of the sanction, Ms Meade was suspended on charges of gross misconduct.

Employment Judge Nicolle said: “The claimant has said that she was naively unaware that any posts she had shared or liked, any petitions she had signed, or any organisations to whom she had donated, were discriminatory or offensive. She said that she had not fully read or analysed the content of some of the articles or links before posting.

“She acknowledged showing a lack of judgement in her use of social media.”

Outlining the claimant’s position, the judge noted that Ms Meade described feeling “bullied” by the process. He added: “the claimant did not consider that articles that she had forwarded from newspapers or other media publications/organisations could be discriminatory.”

Following a year’s suspension, a final written warning and an appeal, the council reversed the finding of gross misconduct and withdrew the sanction.

The judge, who sat with non-legal members Ms Sandler and Ms Breslin, found that both SWE and Westminster City Council had subjected Ms Meade to harassment related to her gender-critical belief when SWE threatened her with fitness to practise proceedings and sanctioned her for misconduct, and then the council suspended her on charges of gross misconduct before issuing a final written warning.

The panel held that the claimant’s Facebook posts and other communications “fell within her protected rights for freedom of thought and freedom to manifest her beliefs as protected under Articles 9 and 10.”

The tribunal concluded: “We consider it wholly inappropriate that an individual such as the claimant espousing one side of the debate should be labelled discriminatory, transphobic and to pose a potential risk to vulnerable service users.

“That in effect equates her views as being equivalent to an employee/social worker espousing racially discriminatory or homophobic views. The opinions expressed by the claimant could not sensibly be viewed as being transphobic when properly considered in their full context from an objective perspective, but rather her expressing an opinion contrary to the interpretation of legislation”.

Ms Meade’s solicitor, Shazia Khan, Founding Partner of Cole Khan Solicitors said: “This is a landmark victory for common sense and free speech in the culture war on gender issues. The Tribunal found that my client was subjected to sustained and prolonged harassment by her employer Westminster City Council and her Regulator Social Work England for merely expressing her gender critical beliefs.”

She said the claimant would demand apologies from Westminster City Council and Social Work England.

The claim has been listed for a two-day remedy hearing on 12 and 13 February to determine the amount of compensation Ms Meade should be awarded.

A Westminster City Council spokesperson said: “We apologise to Rachel Meade for the way she has been treated and the upset that has been caused. We acknowledge and accept the findings of the tribunal.

“As recent landmark cases have shown and the tribunal noted, the issues and policy making involving gender recognition and rights is a fast-evolving area. We will be carefully studying the points made in the judgment and considering what changes we need to make at Westminster City Council to ensure the best balance we can to support our staff, service users and our partners.”

Colum Conway, Chief Executive of Social Work England, said: “We acknowledge the Judgment of the London Central Employment Tribunal in the case of Ms Rachel Meade against Westminster City Council and Social Work England.

"The tribunal made findings in respect of Ms Meade’s claims against Social Work England. Following the Judgment, all parties have the opportunity to consider the decision and their options. As such, we do not intend to provide further comment at this time.”

Lottie Winson