Religious festivals and holiday requests

Harmajinder Hayre looks at a case in which the Employment Appeal Tribunal examined whether the refusal of an extended holiday request to attend a religious festival could amount to indirect religious discrimination.

In Gareddu v London Underground Ltd [2016] UKEAT 0086_16_1512 (15 December 2016) Mr Gareddu is a practicing Roman Catholic from Sardinia, Italy. He lives in the UK with his wife and family, but each August he and his two brothers return to the area of Sardinia where their mother continues to live in order to attend religious festivals.

Mr Gareddu is employed by London Underground Ltd as a Quality Engineer and has been since 1990. Between 2009 and 2013, London Underground Ltd permitted him to take five consecutive weeks of annual leave in the summer. However, in March 2013, a new manager told him that he would no longer be able to take more than 15 consecutive days leave during the school holiday period as this was unfair to the other employees in his team. The pre-existing arrangement for five weeks' holiday in 2014 was honoured.

Mr Gareddu made a claim to the Employment Tribunal stating that attending these religious festivals in or around August each year in Sardinia is part of his religious belief. Therefore he believed that the refusal to permit him more than 15 consecutive days' annual leave was unlawful indirect religious discrimination.

The Employment Tribunal dismissed the claim on the basis that the "asserted religious belief requiring attendance at a series of religious festivals" in or around August was not made in good faith. This related to Mr Gareddu's initial evidence that he attended 17 festivals in Sardinia in the five-week period, when in fact it turned out that this was not correct. In 2014 and 2015, he had not attended any festivals.

Whilst both the Employment Tribunal and London Underground Ltd accepted that participation in religious festivals might constitute a manifestation of religious belief, it was the assertion of a specific five-week period in which to attend a series of religious festivals that resulted in the finding by the Tribunal. Mr Gareddu appealed.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal dismissed the appeal and held that:

• The Employment Tribunal was entitled to find that Mr Gareddu's evidence about attending 17 festivals was not correct.
• The Employment Tribunal had properly considered whether the particular manifestation contended for - attendance at a series of festivals over a five-week period - was genuine.
• The mere fact that attendance at a single festival is a genuine manifestation of religious belief does not inevitably mean that attendance for a five-week period to do so is also a genuine manifestation.
• As an example, if a churchgoing family man asserts that he requires a whole weekend off work to attend church with his family but in truth only attends church on Sunday, the fact that his assertion is partly true does not prevent a Tribunal from determining whether his asserted requirement for a whole weekend off work in order to manifest his religious belief is a genuine one.
• The Employment Tribunal was entitled to find that Mr Gareddu's true reason for wanting five weeks of leave was not his religious beliefs or their manifestation but his wish to be with his family in Sardinia. Mr Gareddu could not therefore have established a particular disadvantage from holding or practising the religious belief in question.

Comment

Attendance at religious festivals can be a manifestation of an employee's religious beliefs and, where that is the case, employers may need to justify a refusal of a request to attend. As well as having a clear policy in place to clarify how requests for extended holiday will be dealt with, employers should demonstrate that refusal is a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim which will require each request to be considered on its merits.

Harmajinder Hayre is executive partner in the Leeds office of Ward Hadaway. He can be contacted on 0113 205 6712 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..