WPUK statement on Roz Adams v Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre

WPUK statement on Roz Adams v Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre

Woman’s Place UK (WPUK) congratulates Roz Adams on her victory in her employment tribunal case against Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC). Read the full judgment here.

Roz Adams’ fight wasn’t just for herself and against the discrimination and unfair constructive dismissal to which she was subjected. It was also to fight for the right of women victim-survivors of men’s violence to be supported by female staff and, where they are in contact with other survivors, for those survivors also to be women.  A trauma informed space for women victim-survivors of sexual and domestic violence and abuse must be single-sex.

Dr Karen Ingala Smith

WPUK Director, nia Ambassador & author Defending Women’s Spaces

The ruling by the tribunal is scathing about ERCC’s treatment of Ms Adams. The employment judge, Ian McFatridge, said that the CEO, Mridul Wadhwa, and other staff wanted “to make life unpleasant” for Adams because they “disapproved of her views”.

Roz Adams, while working at ERCC, was asked by a rape survivor whether a non-binary identified support worker at the centre was male or female. She asked her manager for clarity on what she should tell the service user, making a suggestion that she should let the survivor know that the support worker had been born female. This led to her being investigated for her allegedly “transphobic” views.

The tribunal found that Ms Adams resigned as she “could have absolutely no confidence going forward that the respondents would comply with their obligation of trust and confidence towards her.” Describing the disciplinary process used against her as “reminiscent of the work of Franz Kafka.”

It is appalling that Roz Adams, a woman who wanted to do her best to support rape survivors, was hounded in this way. The ideology pursued by ERCC, rightly described by the judge as “extreme”, deemed it transphobic to mention a person’s biological sex  – even when it was offered as reassurance to a highly vulnerable service user.

We heartily endorse Ms Adams’s statement that her win “is a victory for all people who have been subjected to sexual violence who need a choice of worker, and group support on the basis of sex in order to feel safe.”

We also note the statement made by Sandy Brindley, chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, a welcome reversal from her previous position:

We believe that it is important that survivors can make informed choices about the services they can access at rape crisis centres. We know it is important for some survivors to have a choice over the sex or gender of their worker.”

Sandy Brindley Chief exec Rape Crisis Scotland

Women who have been subjected to male violence should have the right to specify that they want support from female counsellors and support workers. Wadhwa, who identifies as a transwoman, has previously described such women as needing to “reframe their trauma” so that they accept support from trans-identified men. This is profoundly insulting and offensive to women (and girls) who have been subject to male violence and sexual trauma.

An appendix to the tribunal’s judgement includes a moving email from a rape survivor explaining the effect Wadhwa’s words had on her as a “punch in the gut.”

To hear you are CEO of a Rape Crisis Centre say that I am a bigot because I could not bear to be in the proximity of my husband yesterday let alone a male who is a complete stranger was an absolute punch in the gut. The idea of reframing my trauma to make him, or any male, more comfortable while trying to hold myself together and not descend into that all too familiar dark spiral makes me incredibly angry.

ERCC service user (name redacted)

The tribunal judgement is the latest in a series of employment tribunal judgements – including Rachel Meade, Jo Phoenix, Allison Bailey and Maya Forstater, among others – that uphold the right of workers to hold and express the belief that biological sex matters. It is time for employers to wake up and realise that they cannot, by law, discriminate against staff for believing that it’s not possible to change sex, or that sex matters. Too many have drawn up HR policies based on advice from lobby groups such as Stonewall. Problematic because Stonewall law is not the same as the real law as these many legal cases and now Roz Adams’s tribunal so clearly demonstrate.

It is shocking that Roz Adams was treated so poorly, but even more shocking that vulnerable and traumatised service users seeking help from a rape crisis centre were not entitled to specify that they wanted a female support worker. We call on the ERCC and other rape crisis centres to reflect on the tribunal decision and to make a firm commitment to respect the right of rape survivors to be seen by female support workers.

Woman’s Place UK

In 2023, ERCC received over £1.9 million in funding, including from the Scottish government. Service commissioners must now clearly adjust their course and ensure commissioned services are well-funded, trauma informed and clearly signposted, indicating whether services are single-sex or trans-inclusive and ensure that single-sex services are available.

In the same vein, commissioners must be more responsive to the voices of victim-survivors, and exercise due diligence to ensure services for women (and girls) subject to male violence and sexual abuse are fit for purpose.

Woman’s Place UK #DefendingWomensSpaces

THE SCOTSMAN  I  BBC NEWS  I  THE GUARDIAN  I  THE TIMES  I  THE MORNING STAR  I  GLASGOW RAPE CRISIS STATEMENT

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WPUK statement on Roz Adams v Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre