The TUC analysis, reported in the September issue of Equal Opportunities Review [subscription required, click here if you are an EOR subscriber], looks at the state of play in relation to religion or belief and sexual orientation discrimination, which have been prohibited since December 2003.

When the legislation was first introduced, some commentators picked up on the status of the likes of Paganism and Druidism as a grey area. Although the research highlights that tribunals have rejected some pretty outlandish early claims (for example one claimant whose employer refused to allow him to wear a ‘Stars and Stripes' badge sewn on to his jacket argued unsuccessfully that 'loyalty to native country' was a philosophical belief), it finds that tribunals have otherwise been reluctant to limit the definition.

In doing so, tribunals have relied mainly on guidance (Acas guidance says that these religions are included) and the definition in the Oxford English Dictionary, rather than definitions in other fields such as human rights, where freedom of ‘thought, conscience and religion’ is protected.

Interestingly, this issue of Equal Opportunities Review also has a report [subscription required, click here if you are an EOR subscriber] on an employment tribunal decision that concluded that paganism was a religion or belief within the meaning of the legislation.