Gender-neutral toilet ‘was more favourable to men’ says judge as he rules town council discriminated against woman clerk

• A woman clerk was forced to put a sign on the door of a men’s toilet during use
• To get to the single cubicle in the lavatory she was forced to walk past a urinal
• Karen Miller won a sex discrimination claim in 2020 during a tribunal for the case

A town council discriminated against a woman clerk with its makeshift gender-neutral toilets, a tribunal has found.

Karen Miller was told she had to put a sign on the door of the men’s lavatory when she used it. 

To get to the single cubicle she had to walk past a urinal. She even had to wait for Earl Shilton Council in Leicestershire to provide a sanitary bin.

Ms Miller won a sex discrimination claim in 2020. A council appeal has now been rejected by the Employment Appeal Tribunal. 

Judge James Tayler said Ms Miller was not provided with adequate facilities, because of the risk of coming across a man at the urinal and the lack of a sanitary bin. 

A town council discriminated against a woman clerk with its makeshift gender-neutral toilets, a tribunal has found (Stock Image)

He said: ‘That treatment was less favourable than that accorded to men.’

Judge Taylor added: ‘A woman being at risk of seeing a man using the urinals is obviously not the same as the risk of a man seeing another man using the urinals.

‘The claimant was not provided with toilet facilities that were adequate to her needs, because of the risk of coming across a man using the urinal and the lack of a sanitary bin.’

The judgment published this week was immediately seized upon by women’s rights campaigners who have been trying to stop public bodies and businesses replacing separate male and female toilets with ‘gender-neutral’ ones in an attempt to be more welcoming towards transgender people.

Maya Forstater, who in 2021 won a landmark employment case protecting the right to express ‘gender-critical’ views, told the Mail last night: ‘This case should be a wake-up call to employers and service providers who seem to have forgotten that most people prefer to go to the toilet with privacy from the opposite sex.

‘No woman or girl should have to walk past the urinals to get to the toilet, and no man should have the risk of women walking past.

‘Even in the smallest of buildings it is possible to have decent facilities, and in larger buildings providing ladies, gents and a unisex option in separate rooms mean that everyone is catered for.’

Employment law specialist Jason Braier, a barrister at 42 Bedford Row chambers, said: ‘The judgment doesn’t set a precedent, but applies well-trodden principles under the Equality Act on not treating one sex inherently less favourably than the other.

‘However, it will be interesting to see whether the publicity given to this case encourages other toilet-based sex discrimination claims.’

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