Landmark Cases On Workplace Religious Discrimination Go Before The ECtHR

On 4 September 2012 the landmark test cases of Eweida and Chaplin v the United Kingdom and Ladele and McFarlane v the United Kingdom went before the European Court of Human Rights ("ECtHR"). The applicants each allege that there has been a violation of Articles 9 and 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights, which prohibit religious discrimination and protect the right to manifest one's religious beliefs.

All four applicants are practising Christians, who were either dismissed or disciplined for refusing to comply with their employers' instructions on the basis that those instructions conflicted with their religious beliefs. Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin were restricted from visibly wearing a cross at work. Gary McFarlane was dismissed from his job as Relate counsellor for refusing to provide psycho-sexual counselling to same-sex couples. Lilian Ladele was disciplined for refusing to conduct same-sex civil partnership ceremonies.