An Employment Appeal Tribunal has held that dismissing an employee for foisting or proselytising their religious beliefs on clients or customers is not unlawful discrimination on grounds of religion or belief.
In Chondol v Liverpool City Council, Mr Chondol was employed as a social worker by the council and he was seconded to the Community Mental Health Team at Mersey Care NHS Trust. Mr Chondol is also a committed Christian. The council prohibited the overt promotion of any religious beliefs that social workers might hold and it was accepted that this was a reasonable instruction from the employers. The council disciplined Mr Chondol after two incidents, the first where he had given a bible to a service user and the second where a service user had asked not to see Mr Chondol again because “he was talking about God and church and crap like that.” After his dismissal, Mr Chondol took out an employment tribunal claim that he had been discriminated against on the basis of religion or belief.
The Employment Tribunal dismissed his claim. Mr Chondol appealed. The Employment Appeal Tribunal accepted that Mr Chondol had been dismissed because he had been inappropriately promoting Christianity to service users. He had not been dismissed on the grounds of his religious belief but because he was improperly proselytising to service users. The Employment Appeal Tribunal were satisfied that the council would have acted the same way regardless of what religion was being promoted, therefore there was no unlawful discrimination. Mr Chondol lost his appeal.
If you are concerned about discrimination, please contact either Vaishali Thakarer or Ashley Hunt on 0116 212 1000 now or complete one of the on-line forms.
