A British Airways employee has won a religious discrimination case at the European Court of Human Rights. Nadia Eweida was asked by British Airways to remove a Christian cross from around her neck.
The ruling will mean private companies will have to rethink how their employees and the right of the employees to express their religious beliefs in the workplace.
In 2006 Nadia Eweida was sent home without pay by British Airways for wear a necklace with a small silver cross that British Airways said violated the company dress code. The Court ruled that the request by British Airways “amounted to an interference with her [Nadia Eweida’s] right to manifest her religion.
In July 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron had pledged to introduce legislation allowing individuals to wear religious symbols at work in response to Ms. Eweida’s case.
However, the court dismissed three claims of a similar nature. Shirley Chaplin, Lillian Ladele and Gary McFarlane lost their appeals, arguing that British courts had failed to protect their rights to religious expression. Ms. Chaplin, a nurse, was told by a her employers to remove a crucifix around her next as it could cause injury if a patient pulled at it.
The Court ruled that the protection of health and safety was “of a greater magnitude that that which applied in respect of Ms. Eweida”.
The Labour Court originally dismissed the case of Ms. Eweida and Ms. Chaplin. The case of Gary McFarlane and Lillian Ladele pit gay rights against the right to religious freedom.
Mr. McFarlane was dismissed from a national counselling service when his employers deemed him unwilling to provide sex advice to homosexual couples. Ms. Ladele refused to officiate at civil partnership for gay couples as part of her duties as a registrar. Both Mr. McFarlane and Ms. Ladele lost.
But the Court, in the case of Ms. Eweida, shared the opinion of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, suggesting that the Courts’ interpretation of the law on the manifestation of religion and religious discrimination was too narrow.
| EWCA Civ 1025 | EWCA Civ 80 |
