By Ann Marie Foley - 22 July, 2014
The Equality Tribunal has ruled that an Evangelical Christian was discriminated against on religious grounds when South Tipperary County Council sacked him.
The Equality Tribunal awarded John McAteer €70,000 compensation.
The employers discriminated against him when they sacked Mr McAteer for failing to obey their order to stop speaking about his faith to workers and members of the public during office hours.
The civil engineer, who worked mainly with Clonmel Borough Council, took up employment in December 2007.
He stated that the tenets of his religion require him to speak to people about Jesus and share the gospel with them.
He felt that he could recognise when people were not interested and would stop speaking rather than violate their free will.
His employers told him they had received complaints from staff that he was preaching religion to his work colleagues and members of the public. They warned him that this was not acceptable from 9-5 including during lunch-hour.
After several written warnings and disciplinary hearings he was dismissed on 30 July 2010.
Having heard both sides and citing a series of cases, Equality Officer Marian Duffy concluded that “the *right to manifest one’s religious beliefs in work is protected.”
But she added, “These rights are balanced with the rights of an employer to limit these rights provided there is objective justification for doing so and any limitation must be proportionate.”
For example, she said the Ladel and McFarlane case dismissal was objectively justified because of refusal of the staff member to carry out certain aspects of the job due to religious beliefs.
“(In Mr McAteer’s case) I note the complainant was dismissed for continuing to talk about his religion to members of the public during the working day which included lunch-time,” she stated.
“It was accepted that the complainant did not speak to staff about his religion after he got the initial warning.”
She stated that in determining whether it was “objectively justifiable” to maintain a ban on Mr McAleer speaking about his religion, there was no evidence that it had any impact on him carrying out his duties for the Council or that what he was doing was either offensive, inappropriate, or that it constituted harassment.
A number of other points were highlighted in the case.
In its submission the Council claimed that Mr McAteer was guilty of “gross misconduct” in refusing to obey a lawful instruction not to preach to staff or public because of his actions that he would bring South Tipperary Council “into disrepute”.
They also stated that continuing to share his religious beliefs would seriously “undermine” his role as Executive Engineer.
The Equality Officer found that there was no evidence presented in relation to how the complainant brought the council into disrepute or acted other than in a professional manner.
She noted that the complainant’s conversations with members of the public were constantly monitored by the council.
Council staff approaching people and “prying into” the content of the conversation with a view to catching out the complainant was “wholly inappropriate and unnecessary” she stated.
In her decision, the Equality Officer also noted that there was no prohibition on other staff of a different religion practicing their religion and that those of Catholic faith could attend Mass during the working day.
She also highlighted that the Council had required the complainant to attend counseling because speaking out about his religion was seen as sort of addiction.
She stated that a person of another religion would not have been compelled to attend counseling for reasons related to their religion.
Having found in favour of Mr McAteer she awarded him €70,000 compensation as his salary had been €54,000 and he had only found part time work since his dismissal.
*Eweida Case
