HR body attacked over self-ID policy on women’s toilets

Single Sex Toilets

A leading industry group is facing scrutiny over guidance that allows self-identifying transgender women to use single-sex spaces.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which represents HR professionals, has been singled out for advice that says it is “discrimination” to refuse a transgender person access to female-only facilities.

Maya Forstater, chief executive of gender critical group Sex Matters, said she plans to report CIPD to the Government over its approach.

She has specifically referred to the HR body’s official advice, which states that “refusing to allow a transgender or nonbinary person to use the facilities they feel most comfortable in may be discrimination”.

Ms Forstater said: “We think the CIPD’s guidance on trans and non-binary should be scrapped and started again, it’s written in a way that sounds like it’s taking everyone into account but it’s not usable.”

Her comments come after Equalities Minister Kemi Badenoch last week urged the public to give examples of state bodies failing to provide single-sex spaces, such as toilets, changing rooms and female-only gym classes.

Ms Badenoch’s call-out led to one user on Mumsnet claiming: “The CIPD guidance potentially impacts every workplace in the UK and definitely needs reporting.”

The CIPD, which is a charity, said its guidance “makes clear that employers should listen carefully to employees and seek legal advice where necessary if making decisions over the use of toilets and other facilities”.

However, Ms Forstater is urging the CIPD to withdraw its 38-page transgender guide and “start again”, adding that the organisation has talked around the subject while making it “impossible to exclude somebody”.

She said: “The answer that ‘you should consult and take legal advice’ is not practicable. What we’re talking about is a big company, retail or anywhere with lots of sites all over the country, some of them have a picture of a woman in a dress in the door. Are they female only? The answer can’t be ‘we’ll take legal advice’. The answer has to be yes or no.”

Ms Forstater said that Sex Matters, a human rights organisation that campaigns for clarity on sex in law and everyday life, also plans to report other business lobby groups over their guidance on single-sex spaces.

She lost her job in 2019 for stating that sex is a biological fact and cannot be changed, last year receiving a payout following a decision from an employment tribunal.

It follows concern that the NHS, local councils and other government bodies are misinterpreting guidance which states that people should be barred from such places on the basis of their sex and not the gender they identify with.

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