An evangelical Christian civil engineer who was fired from South Tipperary County Council has been awarded €70,000 in compensation by the Equality Tribunal, which found he was discriminated against over his religion.

According to the Irish Times, John McAteer was dismissed for ‘repeatedly and consistently’ speaking about his faith to members of the public and his colleagues during working hours, but mostly during lunch. Mr McAteer ignored a series of verbal and written warnings from senior staff to stop, saying that the tenets of his religion required him to speak to people about Jesus and share the Gospel with them.

In its ruling, the Equality Tribunal noted  that “from the first warning onwards that the complainant was observed and closely monitored by staff of the Council and when he was seen speaking to other people these people were approached by Council staff to find out the content of the conversation.”

It added:  “From the evidence it appears a significant number of Council staff were apprised of the complainant’s religious beliefs and the fact that he could not speak about his beliefs to anybody during the working day including the lunch period. It is clear that these staff were asked to monitor him given the number of staff who reported to management that they saw the complainant speaking to a member of the public. Following each incident, the complainant was warned under the Disciplinary Procedures. I am satisfied that the treatment of the complainant and the monitoring of him by Council staff directly related to his religious beliefs and the manifestation of these beliefs.”

The ruling said: “There was no evidence submitted that the complainant failed to carry out his duties as an employee or that the practising of his religious beliefs had any adverse impact on the respondent’s business.”

However, the man was warned by the Council that if he continued to disregard instructions from senior management and share his faith with people during normal working hours, including lunch, he would be sacked. In August 2008, he left the office to check on the construction of a footpath. While doing so he met a man with a motorbike to whom he spoke about religion.

This resulted in another disciplinary meeting and a final written warning.

In June 2009, Mr McAteer was suspended without pay for two months and was ordered to see a professional to help him with his ‘compulsive behaviour’ after he was spotted talking to a man outside a coffee shop about religion.

In June 2010, the borough council manager informed Mr McAteer that he was to be dismissed after speaking to a man working as a contractor at the council offices about Jesus.

The complainant, who had worked as a civil engineer with North Tipperary County Council for 10 years before moving to South Tipperary County Council in December 2007, said he had held the religious beliefs since 1990 and that the council knew this. He said that he was sharing the word of Jesus and the Gospel with people, as it is a tenet of his religion. If he detected from a person’s body language that he or she was not interested, he would change the conversation or walk away.

Counsel for Mr McAteer submitted that he was an evangelical Christian and that he sought to manifest his beliefs by sharing his faith with others and that this type of practice constituted a fundamental tenet of his belief system.

It was argued that Mr McAteer was not facilitated in the practice of his beliefs by the council and as a result of practicing them was accused of gross misconduct.

The council submitted that Mr McAteer was not dismissed because of his religious beliefs but because he continually failed to comply with the directions of senior members of the council.

The council also said declarations concerning human rights protect the right to hold a religious belief but that no right is absolute and unlimited.

The equality officer Marian Duffy noted that European charters on human rights and freedoms protect a right to manifest one’s religion and, therefore, the manifestation of religion is covered within the Employment Equality Acts.

Ms Duffy said she was satisfied the “treatment of the complainant and the monitoring of him by council staff directly related to his religious beliefs and the manifestation of these beliefs”.