We look at the evolving state of protected belief discrimination in the recent UK Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) case of Ngole v. Touchstone Leeds, which offers employers further guidance on the appropriate analysis in manifestation of belief cases following last year’s Court of Appeal decision in Higgs v. Farmor’s School.
The Legal Framework: Manifestation of Belief After Higgs
In Higgs v. Farmor’s School, the Court of Appeal clarified how tribunals should analyse employer action in response to an employee’s manifestation of belief in direct discrimination cases (see our previous article here).
It held that an employer cannot dismiss or otherwise disadvantage someone simply because they have expressed a protected belief that the employer (or others) find unpalatable. If the action is taken because of the belief itself, it amounts to unlawful direct discrimination under the Equality Act 2010.
However, if the concern is not the belief, but something genuinely objectionable in the way the belief was expressed (assessed objectively), then the employer may be able to take action but only if it can show that the response was proportionate to that objectionable aspect. The employer must demonstrate that its decision was objectively justified in the circumstances and that less intrusive options were properly considered.
The Ngole decision considers how this should be applied.
Background
The employer in this case was a mental health charity that provided mental health and...
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