World of HR: UK Supreme Court rules trans individuals cannot use single-sex bathrooms at work

On Feb. 13, the UK Supreme Court ruled that trans people can use bathrooms associated with their gender identity at establishments and public spaces like pubs, but not at work.

The ruling came after the nonprofit Good Law Project disputed 2025 guidance from the high court that a person’s legal gender was based on their biological sex at birth, according to the news outlet, Them. The guidance on gender definition under the 2010 Equality Act failed to stipulate how daily life would change for trans individuals, but determined, under the guise of protecting “biological women,” that only those assigned as female at birth could be considered women, according to the BBC.

Legal experts warned last year that the court’s definition of gender would influence how organizations interpret the UK’s equality laws moving forward, the Guardian reported.

The court’s Feb.13 finding also dictated that employers must provide trans people with mixed-sex bathrooms, as trans people are still a protected characteristic via the gender reassignment designation under the Equality Act. The UK’s high court asserted that single-sex bathrooms in the workplace “are no longer single-sex facilities and must be open to all users of the opposite sex” if used by trans people, yet single-sex facilities must be available. The ruling stated however, without much clarity, that “trans people should not be put in a position where there are no facilities for them to use.”

“As Britain’s equality regulator, we uphold and enforce the Equality Act,” Mary-Ann Stephenson, chair of the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), told LGBTQ+ news outlet, PinkNews in a statement defending the court’s ruling. “It’s our job to champion everyone’s rights under the Equality Act, including those with the protected characteristics of sex, sexual orientation and gender reassignment. A shared and correct understanding of the law is essential to that endeavor.” (Since becoming the new chair in Dec. 2025, Stephenson has faced many criticisms from the LGBTQ+ community.)

Some legal experts disagreed with the ruling, citing concerns that it could confuse employers and cause more discrimination of trans workers, according to PinkNews.

“What bathroom a trans person can use in a pub may now depend on whether they are there as an employee or for a drink,” Trans+ Solidarity Alliance, a nonprofit, wrote in a letter, PinkNews reported. “We are pleased the court has confirmed that the Equality Act does not function as a bathroom ban, but outdated workplace regulations have failed to keep up with modern times and last year’s Supreme Court judgment has made them entirely unworkable.”

The letter went on to say that treating trans individuals as a “third sex” doesn’t appear to align with privacy protections afforded through the Gender Recognition Act or the Human Rights Act. Equality guidance will likely need to be updated in light of the latest ruling, according to the Independent.

Transphobia in the country has increased over the last several years, with hate crimes against the community hitting a record high in 2023, according to the Guardian. Roughly eight in 10 trans workers in the UK said they have been bullied in the workplace, according to a 2024 report from the Trades Union Congress.

“This is a very distressing judgment for me as a lawyer, as it will be for the trans community. Aspects of it—that wave away as ‘workplace gossip’ evidence of what it means to be outed in an increasingly transphobic and violent society—are deeply troubling,” Jolyon Maugham, a lawyer, and director and founder of the Good Law Project, told the Independent.