religious discrimination at religious organisation?

RBizz

I am posting on behalf of my daughter who currently works for a large religious charity. Although her current role is 'skilled' and therefore she didn't need to be of this religion to get her role she has just been told that she is not eligible for any future promotions as she is not of the required religion.

She is a bit upset having received this notice in writing and I am just wondering are they able to discriminate based on religion because they are a charity, and if not is there anything she can do through tribunal etc.

Info - she has been working there for three years now and this came about as a promotion opportunity arose and she applied but was rejected from going any further as she was not religious. Her head of department confirmed he had tried to get the role reclassified so she could apply but its a company-wide rule so he wasn't able to do anything.

Has anyone had something similar, and is this something she can challenge? TIA

KatrinaWaves

I found this interesting, so I had a google: This is from the CAB website

Religious organisations
Certain religious organisations may be allowed to discriminate against people of different religions. This includes faith schools. The organisation must not be commercial, that is, it must be non-profit-making. The discrimination must be necessary:

for meeting the organisation's religious aims, or
to avoid offending those who share its religious aims.

Example:
I run a church youth club. Am I allowed to restrict membership of the club to practising Christians or is this discrimination?

As long as your club isn’t a commercial business and if your aims are to further the Christian belief amongst young people, you are allowed to refuse membership to young people who are not Christians.

Religious organisations are allowed to discriminate by stopping people of other religions or of no religion:

from becoming members
from taking part in the organisation’s activities
from using the goods and services they offer
from using their premises.

As it is a charity I think they can.

RBizz

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

I found this interesting, so I had a google: This is from the CAB website



As it is a charity I think they can.

Ah darn, thank you for this helpful reply. Will let her know

Comms69

KatrinaWaves wrote: »

I found this interesting, so I had a google: This is from the CAB website



As it is a charity I think they can.

Whilst that's somewhat true, in terms of the membership of the charity.


The employment side of things is more complicated.


Let's say for example, it's a catholic charity, would they be able to discriminate maternity leave based upon the employees marital status? (ofcourse that in itself is a protected characteristic)

Hasbeen

RBizz wrote: »

I am posting on behalf of my daughter who currently works for a large religious charity. Although her current role is 'skilled' and therefore she didn't need to be of this religion to get her role she has just been told that she is not eligible for any future promotions as she is not of the required religion.

She is a bit upset having received this notice in writing and I am just wondering are they able to discriminate based on religion because they are a charity, and if not is there anything she can do through tribunal etc.

Info - she has been working there for three years now and this came about as a promotion opportunity arose and she applied but was rejected from going any further as she was not religious. Her head of department confirmed he had tried to get the role reclassified so she could apply but its a company-wide rule so he wasn't able to do anything.

Has anyone had something similar, and is this something she can challenge? TIA

Is she white and Christian? Charities are allowed to discriminate.

Advise her to get her CV organised and look for some where less biased, where she stands a better chance of eventual promotion.

TBagpuss

Hmm - but the rules quotes say that the discrimination must be necessary to met the organisation's aims or avoid offending those who share the religious aims
I am not sure that a blanket ban on promotions for someone who isn't a member of the religion would necessary met those criteria.

Is it necessary? does meeting the aims of the organisation require more senior staff to participate in relations activities or activities where someone not of the religion can't participate?

(e.g. if the organisation requires all senior staff to actively promote the religion, e.g. by leading prayer groups or services, then it might be necessary that those staff members are of the relevant religion, but the fact that the organisation itself is a religious one doesn't automatically mean that the discrimination would be acceptable. )

The equality and human rights commission's website says (in the section about employment)

"
Circumstances when being treated differently due to religion or belief is lawful
an organisation with an ethos based on religion or belief is restricting a job opportunity to people of their religion or belief. For example, a Humanist organisation which promotes Humanist principles and beliefs could specify that their Chief Executive must be a Humanist.
However restricting a job opportunity to people of a certain religion or belief is not lawful unless the nature or context of the work demands it"

OP, it may be worth your daughter seeking clarification about why she would not be eligable for promotion and asking for a copy of the charity's policies and guidance, and then seeking advice from https://www.equalityadvisoryservice.com/ as to whether the specific restrictions are lawful.

I'd also suggest she check who is saying this - is it official HR or is it her own line manager who may potentially have misunderstood or misinterpreted the rules? Is it any promotion or is it specifc roles which are restricted?

Savvy_Sue

I work for a small charity which has an ethos of a particular religion. At one point our policy said that the CEO must be a practising member of that religion, and the argument was that some duties might include participation in services etc, and also a risk that if the CEO wasn't 'practising' then it might dilute the ethos too much. Everyone else has to be 'in sympathy with' the ethos.

However, we've now relaxed this as we felt we couldn't justify it.

This was in our equalities policy: she needs to see theirs.

However, DH used to work for a charity which required all staff and volunteers to be practising members of a particular religion, and they still justify that. It's led to some interesting discussions for him in the past, with some representatives of other organisations working in the field being reluctant to attend meetings with him, because they (wrongly) believed that the charity would only help people who were also practising members of that religion. Absolutely not true: they helped anyone who asked for their help, with no religious requirement at all.

I would recommend job hunting, because even if she decides to challenge this (and she may well have grounds to do so), it's unlikely to lead to harmonious employee relations if she makes a formal complaint.

Oh, and I'd also join the union. :-)

Gavin83

TBagpuss wrote: »

Hmm - but the rules quotes say that the discrimination must be necessary to met the organisation's aims or avoid offending those who share the religious aims
I am not sure that a blanket ban on promotions for someone who isn't a member of the religion would necessary met those criteria.

Any company can discriminate if there's a valid business reason for doing so. For most companies this obviously won't apply.

The question in this case is whether disallowing promotions based on religion is acceptable in the circumstances and whether charities are exempt from standard employment laws. I'd suggest the answer to both questions is 'no' although you'd probably want someone with more knowledge than me to clarify this.

She'd also likely need to actually apply for a role and get denied before taking it further. She couldn't take the charity to court for denying her a promotion that doesn't yet exist. Technically speaking no discrimination has yet taken place.

TBagpuss

Gavin83 wrote: »

Any company can discriminate if there's a valid business reason for doing so. For most companies this obviously won't apply.

No, they can't.

A valid business reason isn't grounds for discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic (such as religious belief).

I think you are right that OPs daughter would not be able to make a claim to an employment tribunal unless she can show that she has suffered discrimination, although I am not sure that she would have to wait until she applies or a promotion -if her manager believes that she cannot progress that may affect other opportunities, such as access to training or how she is treated more generally - and if there is a policy which is discriminatory and doesn't comply with the rules relating to exemptions then she can raise that with the equalities advisory service for advice. It might also be something to raise with the Charities Commission, potentially.

RBizz

Comms69 wrote: »

Whilst that's somewhat true, in terms of the membership of the charity.


The employment side of things is more complicated.


Let's say, for example, it's a catholic charity, would they be able to discriminate maternity leave based upon the employee's marital status? (of course that in itself is a protected characteristic)

Thank you for your comment, they have said there is an occupational requirement as being of this faith is part of the core business values, and to manage people you have to prove you can fulfill all the values (one of them is we are x faith) and the promotion includes getting someone to line manage which is the issue.

RBizz

Hasbeen wrote: »

Is she white and Christian? Charities are allowed to discriminate.

Advise her to get her CV organised and look for some where less biased, where she stands a better chance of eventual promotion.

No, she is white but an atheist