Tribunal awards transgender ferry worker £65,000 compensation

A transgender P&O Ferries crew member has been awarded £65,000 in compensation after a tribunal ruled that she has been driven out of her job by taunts from co-workers.

Drusilla Marland said she was accused of flirting with her male colleagues and frequently undermined after joining the maintenance team at the Pride of Bilbao ferry in October 2002. Marland had started her gender reassignment programme six months before joining the company.

She said she was referred to by her former colleagues as “he, she, it, whatever” and told to use a male changing room.

The Southampton employment tribunal found that P&O had failed to protect Marland from “an atmosphere of intimidation and hostility caused by the fact that she was undergoing gender reassignment”.

The senior management team had also failed to provide employees with adequate guidelines on dealing with transsexual workers and destroyed Marland’s trust and confidence in her employers.

P&O admitted sexual discrimination but denied unfair dismissal, as Marland had been offered alternative work at the company.

First published in Personnel Today