McFarlane v Relate Avon Ltd [2009] All ER (D) 233 (Dec)
In considering a complaint of discrimination on the ground of religious belief, contrary to the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003, SI 2003/1660, the Employment Appeal Tribunal held that persons with a religious belief were likely to manifest that belief in their conduct.
In some cases where an employer objected to such a manifestation it might be impossible to see any basis for the objection other than an objection to the belief which it manifested; and in such a case a claim by the employer to be acting on the grounds of the former but not the latter might have been regarded as a distinction without a difference.
But in other cases there would be a clear and evidently genuine basis for differentiation between the two, and in such a case the fact that the employee’s motivation for the conduct in question might be found in his wish to manifest his religious belief did not mean that that belief was the ground of the employer’s action.
