Christians take fight on UK religious discrimination law to Europe
The European Court of Human Rights is to hear the case of four Christians who are trying to alter UK religious discrimination law after employment tribunals and courts in this country rejected their claims against their employers. The landmark challenge will be of interest to clients of Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) given that its success would have wide ranging legal implications, say experts.
The complainants have taken their bid to the continent on the grounds of a perceived lack of protection for their religious beliefs in UK law. The upcoming ruling is significant to those firms making use of EML’s employment law services given that any resultant change to the law, or the way it is to be interpreted, will apply to all UK organisations.
The cases of Ladele and McFarlane v UK and Eweida and Chaplin v UK are both presently being heard by the European court.
The latter case involves Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin who, in 2010, both lost religious discrimination cases against their employers – British Airways and the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospitals NHS Trust respectively. Their claims arose from incidents where their employers deemed the wearing of crucifixes at work to be a breach of uniform policy and gave instructions for them to be removed.
In the event of the court upholding the complaints of Mrs Eweida and Mrs Chaplin, employers will effectively be duty bound to accommodate workers’ desires to manifest their religious beliefs. Indeed, although the decision has yet to be handed down, there have already been indications from David Cameron that UK law could be altered to enshrine the right to religious symbols in the workplace (see our previous article) after senior bishops expressed concerns of unfair discrimination against Christians in UK workplaces. Despite this, EML’s human resource consultants are quick to point out that employers will only be required to make adjustments where it is reasonable to do so.
We will update the blog with news of a verdict when we receive it. In the meantime, feel free to contact the HR consultants at Employee Management Ltd (http://www.employeemanagement.co.uk) for advice on compliance with all current legislation applicable to UK employers.
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