A marriage registrar in the UK who was sacked for refusing to conduct same-sex weddings has been reinstated after a successful appeal.
Margaret Jones, 54, who had been dismissed for “bringing the council into disrepute”, was offered her job back after an appeal hearing ruled that her employer had failed to take a “balanced view” of her religious beliefs.
The Sunday Times reports that “while the decision does not create a legal precedent, it is likely to give people greater rights to express religious beliefs in the workplace because it was based on official guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).”
According to a press release from the Chrisitan Legal Centre, who represented Jones in her appeal, she was asked by her employers in 2013 whether her Christian beliefs would prevent her from conducting same-sex weddings in light of the passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act.
On 28 March 2014, just one day before the first same-sex weddings were due to be performed in the UK, Jones had a meeting with management and confirmed that, as a Christian, she believed marriage can only be between one man and one woman. She said she would be unwilling to conduct same-sex weddings as she “would not be able to say the words and be sincere.” At the meeting, Margaret was told the council’s position was that she either perform same-sex weddings or resign.
In April 2014,a formal investigation was launched after Jones was accused of “gross misconduct”. It was alleged that her refusal to conduct same-sex weddings was in breach of her role and amounted to a failure to follow management instruction. Jones was dismissed on the basis that her objection breached equality laws and “brought the council into disrepute”.
But Jones maintained that as she was willing to register same-sex marriages, though not perform them, nobody was being denied access to the council’s services.
Given that she was fired before she was scheduled to officiate at a same-sex wedding, Jones argued that she was “being sacked for my belief, not my actions.”
Her appeal was unanimously upheld by the council’s appeals panel, which ruled that her employer failed to take a “balanced view” of her religious beliefs, and said that in other cases “informal custom and practice arragnements had been developed in order to accommodate individual staff situatios.
This ruling is in line with guidance from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) which encourages workplaces to find “reasonable solutions” to issues of religious liberty, and may result in greater freedom of religion within the workplace.
“All good employers should follow this precedent, and practising Christians should no longer fear expressing their beliefs,” Paul Diamond, barrister to the Christian Legal Centre said.