What is religious discrimination?

Religious discrimination employment law cases have been in the news for most of the last year and with four important UK cases going to the European Court of Human Rights in September 2012, we thought we’d have a look at this in more detail here. Religion or belief is a ‘protected characteristic’ that should not be discriminated against, as outlined in the Equality Act 2010.

Religion includes any religion. It also includes a lack of religion, in other words employees or jobseekers are protected if they do not follow a certain religion or have no religion at all

Under the Act, a religion must have a clear structure and belief system. To be protected, a belief must satisfy various criteria, including that it is a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour.

Discrimination because of religion or belief can occur even where both the discriminator and recipient are of the same religion or belief.

In May 2018 Acas updated their Religion and Belief Guides, and you can read them here.

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