'Philosophical belief' is one of the protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010. There has inevitably been much discussion and some case law about the scope of this provision. A leading case determined that a belief in man-made climate change, and the imperative for all to live in a way to mitigate it, was capable of being a protected belief. But what about vegetarianism – a belief shared by over 20% of the world’s population? The employment tribunal considered this issue in a recent case.
Mr Conisbee resigned and brought an Equality Act claim. The detailed reasons for his resignation are not clear but his discrimination claim was founded on his vegetarian beliefs.
His employer and the tribunal accepted that he had a genuine belief that it is wrong and immoral to eat animals and subject them and the environment to cruelty and the perils of farming and slaughter. However the explanatory notes to the Equality Act set out further relevant criteria for a belief to be protected: eg it must concern a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour, it must attain a level of cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance, and have a similar status to religious belief.
Mr Conisbee lost his case. The tribunal said that those criteria were not met and it was of the view that vegetarianism was about animals and not people, and was a lifestyle choice. It also stated that there is a wide variety of different reasons for people to be vegetarian (such as health, animal welfare concerns and dietary preference) and that vegetarianism didn’t have the same status or cogency as a religious belief (this notwithstanding that vegetarianism is a tenet of some religions).
The judge did say that people’s reasons for being vegan were generally more consistent so veganism might be a protected philosophical belief, but that was not the issue in this case.
This somewhat unexpected decision is at employment tribunal level so is not binding in other cases. Our view is that the question of whether vegetarianism is a protected belief remains a live issue (indeed, perhaps a hot potato!) and employers should be aware of the possibility that someone might claim Equality Act protection if their belief in vegetarianism becomes an issue in the workplace.
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