Conflicting rights

Would your staff know what to say if another member of staff expresses an offensive opinion, but when challenged, claim that they have a right under equality law to express their philosophical belief? And what exactly constitutes a ‘philosophical belief’?

A recent case in London has explored this issue. In Arya v London Borough of Waltham Forest, Arya was dismissed from his position as a teacher, following allegations of misconduct including voicing anti-Semitic views to a colleague in a text message and an email. Arya’s claimed that he had experienced discrimination because ‘the Jewish religion's professed belief in Jews being 'God's chosen people' is at odds, he believed, with a meritocratic and multicultural society’. Arya claimed he had experienced discrimination by being penalised in expressing this view, and claimed that he was entitled to express his views as these were part of his ‘philosophical belief’ and as such, protected under the Equality Act 2010.

The first step was to decide whether his belief came within the protected characteristic of a "philosophical belief" under the Equality Act 2010. Applying the guidance in Grainger plc v Nicholson [2010] the tribunal decided that Arya’s belief is genuinely held, does affect his way of life/view of the world and does attain a certain level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance. But his belief failed the part of the test which requires that it must ‘be worthy of respect in a democratic society and not incompatible with human dignity and/or conflict with the fundamental rights of others’. In the tribunal’s view, Arya's views could not be a ‘philosophical belief’ because they are formed on prejudice and negativity about the Jewish religion.

Comments

[Adriana]

Very interesting ruling and thank you Christine for sharing. I imagine this could cross over to many other beliefs which conflict with the fundamental rights of others (thinking specifically of managing religion/belief and LBG groups). Working in education it is always useful to see case law pertaining directly to our industy.