Discrimination on religious grounds v sexual orientation
by Sarah
You may have heard in the news a case involving a marriage registrar who had worked at Islington Council for 16 years. She refused to carry out same sex marriage ceremonies stating that it was against her Christian beliefs. She brought a claim for discrimination on the grounds that she had suffered harassment and missed promotion opportunities because of her refusal.
As it is an Employment Tribunal decision rather than an Employment Appeal Tribunal decision, the facts are sketchy as they have not been officially reported. I understand however, that she was suspended for the refusal. The Tribunal ruled in her favour and accepted her argument that this amounted to discrimination. You can find out more here.
What is particularly interesting about this case is that it comes on the back of a series of other cases which have made the news about discrimination on the grounds of religious belief. You can read some previous examples here. This case succeeded where others have failed. It may be because the refusal was deeply seated in the religion rather than other cases such as the right to wear a cross to work at BA which arguably is not so deeply seated.
Another interesting point is that although the Claimant was arguably discriminating against members of the public on the grounds of their sexual oritentation this was okay because she had a religious reason for doing so. Hmm this could be a very interesting debate. Let us have your thoughts.
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Sarah, I’ve posted a link to the judgement on my blog.
http://flipchartfairytales.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/registrar-wins-religious-discrimination-case/
Islington was nailed by the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations.
It seems to me that if Islington had not taken action against Lillian Ladele, the two gay members of her team could have taken Islington to court for allowing a homophobic environment, under the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations.
I wonder if this was simply a case of who went to court first. The rights given in the two pieces of legislation are, in my view, bound to conflict. We will get more and more cases like this.
I’d be interested to know what you think.
Rick said at July 13th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Thank you for your comment. You could well be right that we will see more cases where different bits of equality legislation come into conflict with each other. Watch this space.
Emma said at October 16th, 2008 at 10:57 am
[...] reported here the case about the Registrar at the London Borough of Islington who refused to perform civil [...]
Update on Religious Discrimination » PJH Law - Employment Law Blog » Blog Archive said at January 5th, 2009 at 11:59 pm