employment tribunals

A round-up of links to stories about employment tribunal rulings reported in the week beginning 13 May 2013, during which a tribunal heard a religion or belief discrimination claim by a Christian telesales worker that he was required to lie to potential customers to make sales.

Christian telesales employee tells tribunal he objected to "lying" to make sales (on the Personnel Today website) A Christian telesales worker has told an employment tribunal that being required to lie to potential customers to make sales was against his beliefs.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 13 May 2013, during which the Supreme Court held in President of the Methodist Conference v Preston, by a four-to-one majority, that a minister of religion was not an employee and could not claim unfair dismissal.

A journalist's belief in "higher purpose" of public service broadcasting. A violinist's humanist beliefs. A belief in the importance of tackling climate change. An ex-serviceman's belief in importance of wearing poppy in November. Beliefs about government conspiracies behind the 9/11 and 7/7 terrorist attacks. And now a salesperson's belief of the importance of not lying to customers to make a sale. We round up the eclectic list of beliefs that claimants have argued before tribunals constitute "philosophical beliefs" under equality legislation.

FOUND TO BE "PHILOSOPHICAL BELIEFS"

Christian telesales agent alleges dismissal for refusal to lie to customers
Hawkins v Universal Utilities Ltd t/a Unicom
This employment tribunal held that a Christian telesales agent's belief that potential customers should not be deceived to obtain sales could be protected under the Equality Act 2010. However, the claimant lost his case because he did not present sufficient evidence that his former employer had required him to lie to potential customers.

Violinist who criticised concert in newspaper not directly discriminated against because of "humanist" beliefs
Streatfeild v London Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd
An employment judge has struck out as having "no reasonable prospect of success" the claim of direct religion or belief discrimination brought by a violinist whose name was on a letter published in the Independent newspaper protesting against an invitation to the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra to perform at the 2011 Proms. However, the tribunal did conclude that humanism meets all of the criteria to be a philosophical belief.

Journalist's belief in "higher purpose" of public service broadcasting is philosophical belief
Maistry v BBC
An employment tribunal has held that a former BBC employee's belief that "public service broadcasting has the higher purpose of promoting cultural interchange and social cohesion" is a philosophical belief for the purposes of discrimination legislation.

Asserted belief about climate change capable of protection as "philosophical belief"
Nicholson v Grainger plc
An employment tribunal found that an employee's belief that "mankind is heading towards catastrophic climate change and therefore we are all under a moral duty to lead our lives in a manner which mitigates or avoids this catastrophe for the benefit of future generations, and to persuade others to do the same" is capable of being a philosophical belief under the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003. The case went to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, which set out the test for tribunals to follow when deciding whether or not a belief constitutes a "philosophical belief" under equality legislation.

A round-up of links to stories about employment tribunal rulings reported in the week beginning 6 May 2013, during which a tribunal found that a dental nurse was constructively dismissed after warnings over eating an apple while on reception, using her mobile for personal calls, and going on Facebook during work time.

Dental nurse wins case after being given written warning for eating apple (on the Daily Telegraph website) A dental nurse who was given a written warning by bosses for eating an apple has won a case for constructive dismissal against the surgery.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 6 May 2013, during which the Queen's Speech included an announcement that the Deregulation Bill will make provision for the removal of the power in the Equality Act 2010 that allows employment tribunals to issue recommendations relating to the employer's whole workforce.

A round-up of links to stories about employment tribunal rulings reported in the week beginning 29 April 2013, during which a tribunal rejected an age discrimination claim by a police officer who left after being chosen for redeployment, despite the tribunal describing the police force's cost-cutting exercise as "shambolic".

Photo: conner395

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 29 April 2013, during which the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) took the unusual step of going against its own earlier decision. In Onu v Akwiwu and another; Akwiwu and another v Onu, the EAT, in holding that the Equality Act 2010 can be interpreted to cover post-employment victimisation, disagreed with the judgment in Rowstock and another v Jessemey and another.

A round-up of links to stories about employment tribunal rulings reported in the week beginning 22 April 2013, including a tribunal finding that six parking enforcement workers who were made redundant when the services they provided were outsourced to a private company and their jobs relocated from Barnet to Croydon and Lancing.

Unison wins unfair dismissal claim for workers transferred from Barnet to Croydon or Lancing (on the Unison website) Unison has won unfair dismissal claims in Besagni and others v NSL and RR Donnelly for six parking enforcement workers who were made redundant when the services they provided were sold off to a private company and their jobs relocated from Barnet to Croydon or Lancing.

We round up what caught Tribunal Watch's eye on Twitter in the week beginning 22 April 2013, including the enactment in Parliament of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013, which makes a wide range of changes to employment law and tribunal procedure, and Growth and Infrastructure Act 2013, which allows for the introduction of employee-shareholder contracts.

A round-up of links to stories about employment tribunal rulings reported in the week beginning 15 April 2013, including a tribunal finding that a banker was victimised after she claimed sex discrimination against her former employer.

Commerzbank "victimised" employee over discrimination case, tribunal rules (on the Guardian website) City banker Latifa Bouabdillah was "victimised" by her bank after it discovered she was suing her former employer for sexual discrimination, a tribunal has ruled.

See also: Legal opinion: Victimisation for not informing employer of discrimination claim (on the Personnel Today website).