It is now over three years since religious discrimination was outlawed in the workplace through the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations. 

Although the issue of religion never appears to be out of the headlines nowadays, the number of employment tribunal claims alleging religious discrimination are relatively small (only about 850 to date).

It is very easy to agree that employers should not discriminate against their employees because of their religion, but often much more difficult to apply that in practice.

A Christian British Airways (BA) employee hit the headlines recently because she became embroiled in a dispute with her employer because she wore a small silver Christian cross outside her uniform, in breach of BA’s dress code. She initially lost her internal disciplinary hearing, but the public outcry that followed her suspension was so severe that it forced BA into a very public apology and change of policy. 

At a recent employment tribunal case, a Muslim worker who was sacked after attending the holy Hajj religious festival in Saudi Arabia won a claim for religious discrimination. However, a Muslim teaching assistant who refused to remove her veil while teaching students was held to have been fairly dismissed by her school. 

So how do you, as the employer, ensure that you stay on the right side of the law?

The first point that you should always bear in mind is that the obligation is on you to accommodate employees’ religious beliefs as reasonably as you can. It is best to consider belief-based requests and how practicable they are carefully and only then inform the employee.

CASE STUDY:
The call to prayer

You have a male employee who is a strict Muslim. He prays five times a day, three times during normal surgery hours.

He asks if he can conduct these prayers at the surgery.

If you simply turn down his request, you are subjecting him to a ‘provision, criterion or practice’ (the requirement to work the whole day) which will adversely affect more Muslim employees than those of other religious denominations because it is Muslims that need to pray at these particular times of the day.

You may wish to ask the employee how long each prayer will take to see if there is anybody else who is able to carry out that employee’s duties during prayer times or, alternatively, see if he can carry out those duties at a different time.

It is reasonable to suggest to the employee that these prayers should be considered part of his ‘break’ times and that he should work an additional period of time to compensate.

CASE STUDY:
A sabbath request

You employ an orthodox Jewish salaried GP who, because of his faith, requires to be home at least one hour before dusk on Friday and, accordingly, he is not able to work the afternoon surgery during the winter months.

You will need to go through the same process here as for the previous example.

You should try to assess how practical it is to allow this person to leave work early on a Friday by seeing if there is another GP who can work that session.

Like other forms of discrimination, religious discrimination attracts unlimited compensation and there is no qualifying period for employees to wait before they are able to bring a claim. 

Rehan Pasha is a partner with the employment team at solicitors Aaron and Partners in Chester 

Top tips 

• Put together a policy on religious discrimination, explaining what it says and confirming that the surgery will try to accommodate individual religious beliefs.
• Always minute all discussions you have with your employees.
• Do not assume that religion will always be used as an excuse by an employee — but investigate, consider and discuss the matter with the employee before giving your decision.
• Be reasonable and approachable.