Do Green Beliefs Have the Same Legal Rights as Religious Beliefs?
It’s a question we may hear asked more and more. Judges in England recently had to decide whether green beliefs have the same rights and protections as religious or philosophical beliefs.
The case in question is between an environmentalist, Tim Nicholson, who claims he was unfairly dismissed because of his “philosophical belief about climate change and the environment,” and his former employer, Grainger plc, who maintains that the dismissal was based “Solely by the operational needs of the company during a period of extraordinary market turbulence.”
Nicholson, who says his green beliefs affects the way he lives his whole life, wants to seek compensation from Grainger for unfair dismissal. In order to do so, he needed the court to rule on whether he could use the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations, 2003 – special legislation which protects people’s rights to hold religious and philosophical beliefs at work – to bring his case to the employment tribunal.
In March of this year, at a pre-hearing review, an employment judge held the view that it did.
Grainger appealed against this, arguing that Nicholson’s views were not the same as religious or philosophical beliefs.
At the appeal, Mr Justice Burton confirmed the early view saying, “If a person can establish that he holds a philosophical belief which is based on science as opposed, for example, to religion, then there is no reason to disqualify it from protection.”
It’s a landmark decision which will, for the first time, provide to employees who believe that they are being discriminated against for having strong environmental views the right to bring compensation claims against their employers.
What do you think?
Image: smlp.co.uk
(1 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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4 Comments
November 9th, 2009 at 10:14 am
Great post Liz that can’t help but get us thinking.
If anyone goes overboard at work talking about their beliefs be it religious or philosophical, there’s a level of maturity that needs to be questioned.
I don’t want to hear about you being a Jehova’s Witness, Wiccan priestess or sex toy enthusiast at work unless you’re my friend.
Restraint is key but if someone is (ex) throwing away without recycling reams of paper in front of an environmentalist and won’t accept implementing recycling practices, well, that could be a hot mess.
Wonder what Tim Nicholson did to make his boss show him the door or rather what his boss didn’t do to make him voice his opinions.
We’re getting to a point in all this where it’s just not funny nor acceptable to see people wasting, polluting and simply not caring.
Bring on the legislation. It’s time.
November 9th, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I, too, am very curious what behavior transpired to cause the dismissal. What does being allowed to maintain “green beliefs” really mean? That could be as harmless as stating that climate change is a major issue in a water cooler conversation about the environment, or as inappropriate as trying to convert everyone to vegetarianism. As an analogy you might state that you attend mass every weekend and your religious practice is important to you personally, but if you’re asking people to come along, that’s totally out of line. I wonder…
November 9th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
This could be a clue – from the article:
“He was selected for redundancy and claims this was because of views that impact his whole lifestyle, including by stopping him flying.”
Could it be that the job required him to fly somewhere, and he refused because it was against his principles?
Without knowing the details, it’s hard to know how exceptional this case is. Is the employer getting its wrists slapped for good reason? Or is Nicholson tactless and strident in his views, pushing them on others like he’s selling them on commission?
My worry is that environmentalism is now going to get popped in the same bag as minority religions – no matter the legal distinction, that’s how a lot of people are going to see this case. I don’t like that at all, frankly. It’ll turn into another way to discredit the science: “the climate change conspirators just officially became a cult, folks!” and pathetic headlines like that. In fact, it will be another way to label environmentalism AND minority religions as “Other”, perceived to be hiding behind legislation set up by the “political-correctness-gone-mad” lobby. I know a number of right-wing British newspapers that are definitely going to take this tack. Inevitable.
The facts surely are that anyone who takes their personal beliefs to an antisocial extreme that alienates their boss and colleagues and is detrimental to the business runs the risk of being pushed out when the next batch of redundancies hoves into view. That’s just modern business. If that is what happened here, Mr Nicholson hasn’t done himself or his green beliefs any favors.
If Grainger has been vindictive and underhand while Mr Nicholson has acted properly and graciously…that’s fascinating.
That would *really* light the touchpaper.
November 10th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Huh. This is interesting to me, particularly because a) my green beliefs are very closely tied to my religious beliefs, in so far as they’re extensions of each other and b) as a conservation biologist, my job is to be green (though I suppose that doesn’t necessarily mean I must be green myself?) but when I was working through my undergrad I got lots of shit from my employer because I refused to leave recycling in the trash, etc. but I don’t know as they ever would have *fired* me
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