Cambridgeshire County Council will pay a former employee almost £64,000 over harassment relating to her ‘gender critical’ beliefs and sexual orientation.
Elizabeth Pitt, who had worked for Cambridgeshire as a social worker and who is a lesbian, went to an employment tribunal after the council said she had demonstrated ‘behaviours that were non-inclusive and perceived as transphobic’.
The issue arose during a meeting of the local authority's LGBTQIA+ group, after an attendee said he identified his dog as gender-fluid.
In the conversation that followed, Ms Pitt and a colleague expressed ‘gender critical’ views, including about transwomen in women’s sport and women’s spaces, the tribunal heard.
Attendees of the meeting took issue with ‘nasty opinions’ held by the two women.
The county council later sent Ms Pitt a written management instruction – which it said was the informal stage of its disciplinary procedure – telling her not to attend the LGBTQIA+ group or contact its members.
She was instructed to act in a way that ‘ensured her personal views and beliefs did not manifest themselves in comments or actions in the workplace that might discriminate against others on grounds of a protected characteristic’.
At the tribunal, Ms Pitt succeeded in her claim that the council’s reaction to her expressing her beliefs amounted to harassment and direct discrimination.
It means Cambridgeshire will pay Ms Pitt more than £30,000 for loss of earnings and £22,000 for injury to her feelings, plus interest. It will also pay £8,000 for her legal costs.
The tribunal said the council’s mandatory e-learning should be revised to include a section on freedom of belief and speech in the workplace.
Cambridgeshire said it aimed ‘to create a safe, inclusive and compassionate environment for people to work in and recognise this needs to be balanced with everyone being entitled to express their own views and beliefs’.
