Social worker suspended for saying there are ‘two sexes’ wins tribunal

A social worker who was suspended over her belief that there are “two sexes” has won a landmark tribunal against a Labour council.

Rachel Meade, 55, was given a final written warning by Westminster City Council and formally sanctioned by Social Work England (SWE) after a member of the public complained about Facebook posts she had liked and shared.

This included sharing a petition to “save women’s sports”, a post calling to review rules allowing male prisoners who identify as female into women’s prisons, and a meme of a woman saying she was being imprisoned “for saying that Ian Huntley is a man”.

The social worker of more than 20 years was suspended for a year and later brought an employment tribunal claim against both bodies, which she won on Tuesday.

It is the first case of its kind where an employer and regulator have both been found liable for discrimination in relation to gender-critical beliefs, which Ms Meade described as the thought that “there are two sexes, male and female” and “that a person cannot change their sex”.

Judge Nicolle at the London Central Employment Tribunal gave a judgment that said both organisations had not “struck a fair balance between the Claimant’s right to freedom of expression and the interests of those who they perceived may be offended by her Facebook posts”.

He said that all the posts “fell within her protected rights for freedom of thought and freedom to manifest her beliefs as protected under Articles 9 and 10” of the European Convention on Human Rights.

‘This is a landmark victory’

Ms Meade said: “It’s a huge relief to be so completely vindicated after all this time. It has been a horrendous experience. This ruling makes it clear that I was entitled to contribute to the important public debate on sex and gender.”

Shazia Khan, Ms Meade’s solicitor and a 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.”

Calling for “urgent” reforms of both bodies, she added: “This judgment sounds an alarm for all regulators – and all employers of regulated professionals – that they must not let their processes be weaponised by activists bent on silencing the debate on freedom of speech on gender.”

Ms Meade filed her claim a year ago, arguing that her gender-critical beliefs surrounding the debate about potential reforms to the Gender Recognition Act – whether a person can legally self-identify their gender – were protected under the Equality Act 2010.

Her regulator, SWE, received a complaint from a member of the public in 2020 about roughly 70 Facebook posts that she had shared or liked, prompting bosses to launch a lengthy fitness to practise investigation.

She was issued with a one-year warning after case examiners found she had “engaged in a pattern of discriminatory behaviour which persisted over an extended period”.

When her employer Westminster City Council learned of the sanction, Ms Meade was suspended on charges of gross misconduct, suspended for a year and given a final written warning.

Both bodies later withdrew their sanctions but the tribunal panel found that they had subjected her to harassment related to her gender-critical belief.

Payout yet to be determined

Ms Meade, who crowdfunded more than £120,000 for the case, succeeded in most of her complaints of harassment and a two-day remedy hearing next month will determine what payout she should be awarded.

Judge Nicolle’s ruling said SWE’s failure to check the social media history of the complainant showed “an apparent willingness to accept a complaint from one side of the gender self-identification/gender critical debate without appropriate objective balance of the potential validity of different views in what is a highly polarised debate”.

Westminster City Council said it would be “considering what changes we need to make”, adding: “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.

Colum Conway, the chief executive of Social Work England, said it “acknowledge[s] the judgment” and “all parties have the opportunity to consider the decision and their options”.