Male nurse told to ‘man up’ by his female boss in front of a room full of women wins sex discrimination case

The only male member of an NHS health visitor team has won a sex discrimination case after his female boss ordered him to ‘man up’ in front of a roomful of women.

Senior manager Lisa Sanchez deliberately excluded Pete Marsh when she said “goodbye ladies” as she left a meeting because of a “growing animosity” toward him, an employment tribunal ruled.

Mr Marsh – who has worked in healthcare for over 20 years – said he was tired of being the butt of jokes about being the only man on the team.

The tribunal found that this culture was tolerated by bosses, including service chief Ms Sanchez, who joined the comments.

Now, after his internal complaints of bullying were dismissed, Mr Marsh has successfully sued the NHS for sex discrimination and is eligible for compensation.

It was told at the hearing that the qualified nurse had worked for the NHS since 2002 and started in January 2013 as a student health visitor with the Manchester University NHS Trust.

He subsequently qualified and was part of Cheetham and Crumpsall’s inner-city team at the time of the discrimination, the tribunal heard.

In May 2016 he became a recognized union representative of Unite.

Two years later, he was involved in an altercation with a female pediatric nurse on the team, who had ignored his request to help her.

This resulted in her filing a complaint against him, which led to mediation between the couple.

The Manchester tribunal heard that this mediation was carried out by Ms Sanchez and Mr Marsh felt she had sided with the nursery worker against him and then emailed her to express his dissatisfaction.

This “annoyed” Ms. Sanchez, the tribunal heard.

At a staff meeting shortly afterwards to discuss a plan to increase clinic workloads without increasing time, Ms Sanchez was told that she asked in an “aggressive and confrontational” manner which staff would be members of “Pete’s Union’.

“The tribunal found that Ms. Sanchez’s approach was deliberately divisive and intimidating,” the panel said. “The implication was that the staff should be seen as members of Pete’s Union or not, and it became a matter of taking sides.”

Mr Marsh alleged that at a meeting in July 2018, Ms Sanchez said hello to every female member of staff as she entered and said ‘goodbye ladies’ as she left, completely ignoring him.

In February 2019, the tribunal heard, a team meeting where concerns about poor staff morale were raised escalated into a heated argument involving Ms Sanchez and Mr Marsh.

Mr Marsh was the only male in the room with ten female colleagues, the panel heard.

“The atmosphere in the meeting became tense,” it was said during the hearing. “There was a five-minute break, after which the discussion spiraled out of control, involving most of the team members.

‘(Mr Marsh) complained of being ignored. Ms. Sanchez stated that the team’s behavior was “childish” and should stop, and that the team should adopt professional behavior and respect the Trust values.

Ms. Sanchez also said that people could only talk if they were spoken to. (Mr. Marsh) objected to this and left the meeting, saying that Ms. Sanchez should put herself in order.

In response, Mrs. Sanchez said to him, “You need to pull yourself together.”

The tribunal considered that her remark was made in the heat of the moment and was unprofessional. Mrs. Sanchez lost her temper and should have closed the meeting instead of verbally attacking (Mr. Marsh) as she did.”

The tribunal was told that Mr Marsh was complaining about the way Ms Sanchez had addressed him at the meeting.

“(He) said he felt bullied by Ms. Sanchez. He also said that as a lone man in the workplace, he felt he was facing a lot of abuse that he would like to challenge but didn’t, but that he drew the line when he was told he could only talk when spoken to. it said.

The tribunal heard that while Ms Sanchez admitted regret for the remark, she had never apologized for it.

Mr. Marsh left work stressed and filed a “Dignity at Work” complaint in May alleging bullying and harassment by several employees, including Ms. Sanchez.

The tribunal heard that the Trust subsequently launched a ‘completely ineffective’ inquiry into the health visitor team, which eventually dismissed Mr Marsh’s concerns and concluded that the whole team needed to develop ’emotional resilience’.

In November 2019, Mr Marsh moved to a different health visitor team and in April 2020 launched tribunal proceedings against his employers, alleging sex discrimination, union damages and disability discrimination.

The panel, chaired by employment judge Marion Batten, upheld some of his sexual claims and found Mr Marsh had been discriminated against.

“The tribunal accepted (his) evidence that he was often the target of jokes or comments about being the only man on the team or about his gender.

He indicated that such remarks were sometimes harmless, but he had grown tired of them and was occasionally irritated by the fact that his gender was being unnecessarily highlighted.

“The tribunal found that this culture and approach of (Mr. Marsh) was tolerated by his immediate management, who took no steps to deter (his) colleagues, and Ms. Sanchez has been shown to have participated in such comments herself.”

The ‘man up’ comment was not only unprofessional, it was also ‘less favorable treatment’ because of Mr Marsh’s gender, the panel ruled.

Of the ‘Goodbye Ladies’ salutation, the tribunal said: ‘This may be an ill-considered remark at best, but for a senior and experienced manager in the NHS the tribunal would expect better.

In the context of Ms Sanchez’s developing animosity towards (Mr Marsh), the tribunal found that she was well aware of his presence at the time of her comment.

“Under these circumstances, the tribunal ruled, on the basis of a balancing of probabilities, that Ms Sanchez had said ‘Ladies’ and that this was intentional.

“In reaching this conclusion, the tribunal took into account that the incident took place after the mediation, which Ms Sanchez said had gone well. (Mr. Marsh) however, disagreed.

“He remained unhappy and had complained, which then irritated Ms. Sanchez. She acted to the detriment of Mr. Marsh and treated him less favorably on account of his sex, and excluded him by her remark on his departure.’

Mr Marsh was also discriminated against by female colleagues who made false complaints against him.

In addition, it was found that Ms Sanchez had treated him unfairly in relation to his role at Unite by asking the ‘Pete’s Union’ question, the tribunal ruled.

However, his disability claim was rejected. Mr Marsh’s compensation will be decided at a later hearing.