The European Commission has begun legal action against the UK government over its employment law exemptions which allow church bodies to employ on the basis of their ethos.
The case mirrors the suggestion last year by the Commission that Ireland’s employment equality legislation contained exemptions for religious institutions which were “too broad”.
The Commission withdrew its complaint after the Government pledged to fight the case all the way in the lead up to the Lisbon referendum,
The commission wrote to the UK government last week, claiming that the UK had incorrectly implemented an EU directive prohibiting discrimination on the grounds of a person’s sexual orientation.
The ruling follows a complaint from the National Secular Society, which argued that the opt-outs went further than was permitted under the directive and had created “illegal discrimination against homosexuals”.
The commission agreed. A “reasoned opinion” by its lawyers informs the government that its “exceptions to the principle of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation for religious employers are broader than that permitted by the directive”.
However, the UK Government, like the Irish Government, has the option of taking on the Commission, whose finding, though likely to carry some sway with European Court of Justice, is not automatically binding.
Under a new employment law being drafted by the government, religious organisations will be able to refuse to employ homosexuals only if their job involves actively promoting or practising a religion.
The employment directive outlawing discrimination in the workplace was finalised by the European commission in 2000 and became law in the UK in early 2003, following a public consultation exercise. At the time there were accusations that the government had “caved in” to religious groups that mounted a fierce lobbying campaign to be exempted from the new laws.
Under the terms of the exemption, religious groups were allowed to refuse a position to a homosexual employee “so as to avoid conflicting with the strongly held religious convictions of a significant number of the religion’s followers”.
The EU’s equal opportunities commissioner, Vladimir Špidla, said: “We call on the UK government to make the necessary changes to its anti-discrimination legislation as soon as possible so as to fully comply with the EU rules.”
But religious groups expressed alarm at the move. The Christian charity, Care, said: “If evangelical churches cannot be sure that they can employ practising evangelicals with respect to sexual ethics, how will they be able to continue?”