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New
equality laws ‘substantially’
restrict religious liberty
Today (Friday 24th)
the Government closes its consultation on radical anti-discrimination
laws which substantially restrict the freedom of churches and religious
bodies to employ staff who are practising believers.
Top legal academics have today accused the government of undermining
religious freedom. They say that the Government has decided to implement
an EU Employment Directive without granting the full range of safeguards
which are permitted under EU law. All religious faiths will be affected.
Professor Ian Leigh of Durham University, a leading
human rights lawyer, said today: “The government regulations have
all the potential to seriously undermine freedom of association for
religious people. They place the modern concept of ‘equality’
over and above religious liberty.”
In a new report published today by The Christian Institute, Professor
Leigh argues that the Government rules made under secondary legislation
could be challenged and struck down in the courts (download the report
at http://www.christian.org.uk/directive2003/seminar.pdf).
Other legal academics have questioned whether the government plans are
lawful and accused the government of “restricting religious liberty
in unprecedented ways”.
Whilst the Vegetarian Society can refuse to employ meat-eaters and the
RSPCA can sack an executive who is found to have invested in the fur-trade,
churches which employ Christians could now face legal action for doing
so. They could face the possibility of crippling legal actions just
for following their beliefs.
But the Government has granted special exemption to all political parties
from the regulations on belief and religion. This means that the Labour
Party will be able to continue its present policy of employing only
Labour party members.
Under the new regulations a church youth worker who abandons his faith
and becomes an atheist or even a Satanist will now be protected in law
from being sacked. The Labour Party will continue to be able to dismiss
staff who are found to support other parties.
Churches will be allowed to preach that sex outside of marriage is wrong,
but under Government rules churches must be willing to employ sexually
active bi-sexual or homosexual staff who break this Christian teaching.
A church youth worker whose job includes preaching can leave his wife
for his boyfriend and now claim absolute legal protection for his bi-sexual
orientation.
Julian Rivers, Senior Lecturer in Law at the University
of Bristol said, “The Government's draft regulations implementing
the Equal Treatment Directive represent a substantial and disproportionate
restriction on the liberty of individuals and groups to act according
to their moral and religious convictions. They fail adequately to balance
human rights principles of equality and liberty. There is a serious
question over whether they are lawful in their present form.”
David Harte, Barrister and Senior Lecturer in law at
Newcastle University, said: “Unless the Government’s draft
regulations are substantially modified, the regulations may be used
to restrict religious liberty in quite unprecedented ways. The key problem
is that the Directive and the regulations focus on the rights of individuals
as employees. They fail to take adequate account of the rights of religious
people to structure their work in accordance with their own beliefs.”
Professor Paul Beaumont of Aberdeen University, co-author
of EU Law, said: “The UK Government having negotiated for the
final paragraph in Article 4 of the EC Directive on Equal Treatment
in Employment (2000/78) should make full use of that paragraph in the
implementing Regulations. As it states individuals should work for religious
organisations in good faith and with loyalty to the organisation's ethos.
Furthermore the failure to do so should, as a final sanction, permit
the organisation to lawfully dismiss the employee. Otherwise individual
rights are being given too great a weighting vis-à-vis the freedom
of religion and freedom of association rights of the religious organisation.”
Colin Hart, Director of The Christian Institute, said:
“The draft regulations try to squeeze churches and other religious
organisations into a secular mould. The Government is telling churches
how they must be run and what they must believe.”
“No
religious organisation can maintain its ethos if it is forced to employ
staff who profoundly disagree with the whole basis of the organisation.
That is why the Labour Party only employs card-carrying party members.
It is hypocritical for the Government to stop religious organisations
from acting in a similar way.”
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ENDS -
Note
for Editors
The proposals are part of a package of measures aimed at banning workplace
discrimination on the grounds of religion, belief or sexual orientation.
Only clergy posts are exempted from the new laws because ministers are
not employees but office holders. Most churches employ lay staff who
are not ordained.
The
planned new laws are the result of an EU directive which the Government
signed in October 2000. The Christian Institute is campaigning to preserve
existing religious freedom. It has published information on a special
area of its website (http://www.christian.org.uk/directive2003).
The Christian Institute, Registered Charity No 100 4774 seeks to promote
the Christian faith in the UK. Registered Office: 26 Jesmond Road, Newcastle
upon Tyne, NE2 4PQ
For more information contact: Colin Hart or Simon Calvert on 0191 281
5664
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