A new Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) ruling has found that an atheist teacher wasn’t discriminated against on the grounds of religion concerning the placing of a May altar with a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary in a school. The complainant had said the statue provoked deep unease and anxiety in him because of his deeply held beliefs. He claimed it was “unpalatable and offensive to him personally on the basis of his belief that the religious statue of the Virgin Mary is one associated with the repression of normal human sexuality”. The teacher also got involved in a scuffle with a caretaker while attempting to forcibly remove the statue that left the caretaker visibly shaken, bruised, and with a cut to the neck.
Dismissing the teacher’s claim for discrimination, harassment and victimisation, the Adjudication Officer, Enda Murphy said: “I am satisfied that the placement of the May altar is a passive symbol which is not intended for the purpose of imposing or manifesting Catholic or Christian beliefs upon the complainant personally.”
Mr Murphy also found that the presence of religious symbols such as the May altar is wholly legitimate, rational and proportionate to the object of the preservation of the Christian ethos within the school, described as a Central Technical Institute (CTI).
“I am satisfied that the actions of the complainant in attempting to remove the statute on the date in question served to undermine the religious ethos of the school,” Mr Murphy added.
He said he couldn’t accept that the teacher’s actions in attempting to remove the statue “were tantamount to an act of expression of his religious beliefs”.
