Robyn Brindley
Robyn Brindley, a male who identifies as a transgender woman, was suspended and ultimately their employment was terminated at a Zara store in Dundee after attempting to take a bottle of “men’s perfume” (i.e. aftershave) in 2020, something Brindley, 26, claimed was an accident when clearing a display of fragrances.
Brindley brought a discrimination claim against the store claiming it was a false accusation of theft due to being transgender. The tribunal found that this claim could not be substantiated and that Brindley had a history of being difficult and behaving inappropriately at work – and that the manager, Ms Russell, in fact dealt with the situation appropriately. Brindley had been given a final written warning in December 2019 after being unable to attend work through still being drunk after socialising the previous night. Brindley’s claim was dismissed by the employment tribunal in October 2021.
Employment judge Alexander Kemp said: “Putting it very simply, Ms Russell was managing an employee who… could on occasion cause a difficulty by what she did, not being where she should be when she should be, or not acting in an appropriate manner, in all of which circumstances Ms Russell sought to correct the behaviours.”
In a 2018 article on the most successful Tinder users in the UK, Brindley describes their opening lines after finding a match as: “I always let them speak first because I think it’s more gentlemanly.”
The tribunal judgement can be accessed here
Image via Daily Record
Media reports
Fourth Wave https://4w.pub/trans-identified-male-accuses-zara/ archive
Herald Scotland https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/19708594.transgender-zara-worker-loses-discrimination-claim/ archive
Daily Record https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scottish-woman-makes-onto-list-12307144 archive