The Employment Appeal Tribunal has found that two members of a board were jointly and severally liable for unfair dismissal and religious discrimination, the compensation for which could include aggravated damages arising out of their post-employment conduct.
This unusual case concerned whether or not an employee's beliefs that the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and 7/7 were carried out by the US and UK Governments, and were part of a "gigantic" and "evil" conspiracy, are capable of being protected as "philosophical beliefs" under discrimination law.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that the employment tribunal had not considered properly the evidence as to whether or not a significant group of Sikhs were disadvantaged by a council's policy that all staff who used of the communal staff kitchen had to join the rota to clean the fridge.
In Power v Greater Manchester Police Authority EAT/0087/10, the EAT affirmed that, in determining whether or not an employee has suffered direct religious discrimination, a distinction may be drawn between treatment on the ground of the person's beliefs and treatment on the ground of manifestation of those beliefs.
This case shows that some incidents of harassment are so serious that the correct approach is for the employer to contact the police, rather than use its own internal harassment investigation procedure.
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.