Trust wins discrimination appeal

No unlawful discrimination took place when an NHS Trust disciplined a Christian employee for improperly promoting her religious beliefs.

Wasteney v East London NHS Trust (App No. UKEAT/0157/15/LA) concerned the Trust’s action after receiving complaints against Wasteney of religious “grooming” from a more junior employee of Muslim faith. The alleged “grooming” consisted of “praying with the junior worker and the laying on of hands, giving a book to that worker, which concerned the conversion to Christianity of a Muslim woman, and inviting her to various services and events at the claimant’s church”. After investigation, the Trust found Wasteney guilty of serious misconduct, namely the blurring of professional boundaries and the subjection of a junior colleague to improper pressure and unwanted conduct. She was given a final written warning, reduced on appeal to a first written warning.

Judge Eady QC dismissed the appeal, stating in her judgment that: “The claimant was not subjected to disciplinary process or sanction because she manifested her religious belief in voluntary and consensual exchanges with a colleague but because—as the employment tribunal expressly found—she subjected a subordinate to unwanted and unwelcome conduct, going substantially beyond ‘religious discussion’, without regard to her own influential position. 

“The treatment of which the claimant complained was because of, and related to, those inappropriate actions; not any legitimate manifestation of her belief.” 

Employment law specialist Dr John McMullen, a partner at Wrigleys, says: "This case confirms that everyone has the right to manifest their religion and that to discipline someone for doing so would be unlawful discrimination. 

“However an employer would be entitled to discipline someone for subjecting (as in this case) a junior colleague to unwanted pressure and unwelcome conduct by foisting their religion on them. The right to manifest one's religion can include an element of proselytization but an employer is entitled to take reasonable action to protect the rights of another person who simply does not want to give up their own religion."