Victory for non-Christians in religious discrimination case

A Christian charity acted illegally when it began recruiting only practising Christians for most posts and told existing non-Christian staff they were no longer eligible for promotion, an employment tribunal has ruled.

Mark Sheridan, who worked for Prospects—a charity for people with learning disabilities— for eight years, successfully claimed constructive dismissal before the Abergele tribunal after he quit his job in protest against the charity’s 2004 change in recruitment policy.

Hanne Stinson, chief executive of the British Humanist Association, says faith-based organisations will have to be much more stringent when they wish to discriminate on grounds of religion or belief in employment. He says that since the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003 came into force, religious organisations are discriminating more in their employment practices. “The judgment makes clear that a court will make an objective assessment of what a ‘religious ethos’ is, and states that it is not for the religious organisation itself to define its ethos, where this does not accord with reality on the ground,” he adds.

Sheridan’s barrister, James Boddy, from 11 King’s Bench Walk Chambers, says: “This is the first time an employment tribunal has been called on to decide the extent to which an organisation with a religious ethos is allowed to discriminate on grounds of religion or belief.”