6ft 3in transsexual 'forced to apologise to colleagues for wearing dress to work ... and then sacked'



Rachel, formerly Andrew, Millington claims she was sacked for turning up for work in a dress

A 6ft 3in transsexual care worker is suing her former employer after claiming she was sacked for turning up for work in a dress.

Rachel Millington alleges she was forced to apologise for ‘upsetting’ staff when she changed her name from Andrew and started dressing as a woman.

The 24-year-old claims bosses at Housing And Support Solutions Limited terminated her contract without reason just three days after she announced her gender change decision.

Miss Millington, of Ermine, Lincoln, is now suing the company for unfair dismissal, sexual discrimination and loss of earnings at a tribunal next month.

She said: 'I think it's ridiculous and completely unfair. I'm just trying to get on with my life. I'm not causing any harm to anyone.

'The disabled people I was working with didn't have a problem with Rachel - just my colleagues and bosses.

‘I think their attitude is very sad.'

Miss Millington, who started cross-dressing when she was just 12, decided to go public with her alter-ego last year, and changed her name by deed poll after discovering she had to live as a woman for a year before she could be considered for a sex-change on the NHS.

She has not yet had surgery - and is still physically a man - but plans to undergo a gender re-alignment operation and hormone injections to stimulate breast growth.

Miss Millington claims she approached her bosses at the Cleethorpes-based company and warned them that she would be coming to work as a woman - and asked to be called Rachel instead of Andrew.

But she claims they were unsupportive and told her it was a 'phase' she would grow out of.

Miss Millington said: 'I couldn't believe their reaction - they spoke to me like a silly child.

'They said Rachel should be kept for private - but I know my rights, and I knew they couldn't stop me from being Rachel.

'The managers called a staff meeting that I wasn't allowed to attend, and told the rest of the staff, they didn't like me being Rachel, but they had to put up with it by law.

'I was mortified. A week later, they gave me an appraisal, and said that although my work was good, I had made other members of staff feel uncomfortable, and ordered me to apologise to them.'

She claims she spoke individually to her eight colleagues over a number of days.



'I had never felt so embarrassed,’ she said.



'Embarrassed': Miss Millington, pictured before she started living as a woman, claims she was forced to apologise to colleagues for wearing a dress to work

Miss Millington alleges that three days after the meeting, she received a phone call from her bosses - telling her not to go back to work.

She added: 'I kept asking them why, but they said it wasn't just one reason.

'The only reason I can see was that they couldn't cope with me becoming a new person.

'I don't regret becoming Rachel, but it really upsets me that I have lost my job.

'I don't want to sit around claiming benefits - I want to work, but I am not being allowed to.

'It took a lot of courage to make the decision to go ahead and take the plunge to become Rachel - I have had a lot of support from my friends, and it would have been nice to have had some support from my employers too.'

Samantha Worth, a paralegal at McKinnells Solicitors in Lincoln who is involved in representing Miss Millington, said: 'We will be fighting Rachel's case at an employment tribunal which is due to be held at the beginning of September.

'She has out every support in this case.'



Directors at Housing And Support Solutions Limited were unavailable for comment but are expected to deny the allegations.

