‘The Court of Appeal is to consider a barrister’s claim that LGBT charity Stonewall “caused or induced” discrimination against her by her chambers.’
Legal Futures, 12th December 2024
Source: www.legalfutures.co.uk
‘In Omooba v Michael Garrett Associates Ltd (t/a Global Artists) & Anor [2024] EAT 30, Ms Seyi Omooba, an actor, was cast as Celie in a stage production of The Color Purple. Celie is regarded as an iconic lesbian role and the announcement that Ms Omooba was to play it led to a social media storm about an earlier Facebook post in which she had expressed her belief that homosexuality was a sin. As a result, her contracts with the theatre (the second respondent) and her agency (the first respondent) were terminated.’
Law & Religion UK, 7th March 2024
Source: lawandreligionuk.com
‘In Dr David Miller v University of Bristol [2024] ET 1400780/2022, the claimant was appointed Professor of Political Sociology at the University from 1 September 2018. In 2019 there were complaints about his conduct, including what was said to be his use of antisemitic language. The Community Security Trust charity said that a lecture he had given had been a “false, vile, anti-Semitic slur”. As part of the internal complaints procedure the University appointed an independent barrister to investigate; the overall conclusion of the resulting report, delivered on 4 December 2020, was that there was no formal case to answer in connection with any of the matters investigated.’
Law & Religion UK, 7th February 2024
Source: lawandreligionuk.com
‘An academic experienced discrimination when he was sacked from his university for comments he made about Israel, a tribunal has ruled.’
BBC News, 6th February 2024
Source: www.bbc.co.uk
‘Rebecca Denvers identifies the cases which will have a big impact on employment law and HR policies and practices over the next 12 months.’
Local Government Lawyer, 19th January 2024
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The High Court decision in R (on the Application of Bowen) v Kent County Council [2023] EWHC 1261 (Admin) makes it clear that local authorities cannot exclude humanist representatives from their Standing Advisory Councils for Religious Education (SACREs). Although many SACREs already include humanists and this interpretation has been articulated in soft law, the judgment of Constable J is unambiguous on that point and presents a significant step forward. However, the judgment also highlights how the protection of non-religious beliefs continues to be controversial and lacking in clarity. This post will explore this welcome decision while highlighting the unresolved matters concerning freedom of non-religious beliefs.’
Law & Religion UK, 30th May 2023
Source: lawandreligionuk.com
‘In Ms F Grabe v The United Reformed Church [2022] UKET 2204367/2012, Ms Grabe had been a candidate for the Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the URC between November 2008 and June 2012. The URC’s practice is that If a member of a local church wishes to discern a potential call to ministry, the local church refers the applicant to the regional Synod. If the Synod agrees, the candidate then attends an Assessment Conference made up of an Assessment Board and an interview with representatives of the Church’s Educational and Learning Committee, during which the candidate’s qualifications and general knowledge about the URC are ascertained and discussed. If the Assessment Board approves the candidate for ordination training the candidate and the Education and Learning Committee are so informed.’
Law & Religion UK, 13th February 2023
Source: lawandreligionuk.com
‘The Government published the latest quarterly and annual statistics last month. We explore what they reveal about the volume of claims and levels of compensation.’
Mills & Reeve, 4th January 2023
Source: www.mills-reeve.com
‘A researcher who lost her job at a thinktank after tweeting that transgender women could not change their biological sex has won her claim that she was unfairly discriminated against because of her gender-critical beliefs.’
The Guardian, 6th July 2022
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘The Council of Europe has published a report, adopted by a committee of parliamentarians from across the continent, which condemns the UK’s treatment of transgender people.’
Each Other, 29th September 2021
Source: eachother.org.uk
‘The judgment in Forstater v CDG Europe UKEAT/0105/20/JOJ has forced the courts yet again to grapple with the transgender debate. We have already seen the judiciary face up to the challenging issues of whether children with gender dysphoria can consent to receiving puberty blockers (see recent decision in Bell v Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust [2021] EWCA Civ 1363). In the present case, the issue was whether the Claimant’s belief that biological sex is real, important, immutable, and not to be conflated with gender identity was a “philosophical belief” within the meaning of section 10 of Equality Act 2010 (“EqA”).’
UK Human Rights Blog, 21st September 2021
Source: ukhumanrightsblog.com
‘What does it mean for a belief to not be worthy of respect in a democratic society? In Maya Forstater v CGD Europe and Others UKEAT/0105/20/JOJ, the Employment Appeal Tribunal sought to answer this question.’
No. 5 Chambers, 11th June 2021
Source: www.no5.com
‘C was dismissed for refusing to apologise for offending his colleagues. C’s position was that he had mixed up his words due to his dyslexia. The offence that he had caused was unintentional. He had refused to apologise, or to apologise sufficiently, for that reason. He asserted that he was being required to communicate in a way that could not be misinterpreted, and that as a Stoic this was something that he could not do.’
3PB, 7th October 2020
Source: www.3pb.co.uk
‘A High Court judge has dismissed a legal challenge brought by six couples who are humanists and who complained that the legal recognition of different forms of religious wedding ceremony under English law does not similarly extend to weddings carried out in accordance with their humanist beliefs.’
Local Government Lawyer, 3rd August 2020
Source: www.localgovernmentlawyer.co.uk
‘The right to philosophical and religious beliefs – or to no belief – is in effect a similar category of protection to that afforded to sex, race, disability or age under the Equalities Act 2010, according to Sarah Chilton, a partner at the law firm CM Murray.’
The Guardian, 3rd January 2020
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A researcher who lost her job at a charity after tweeting that transgender women cannot change their biological sex has lost a test case because her opinions were deemed to be “absolutist”.’
The Guardian, 18th December 2019
Source: www.theguardian.com
‘A leading animal welfare charity is locked in an acrimonious legal dispute with a former employee who claims he was dismissed for telling colleagues that its pension fund invested in companies that have been involved in animal testing.’
The Guardian, 16th June 2018
Source: www.theguardian.com
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