July 08, 2010
A Protestant teacher who claims she was selected for redundancy due to her religious beliefs has been awarded £8,250 in damages.
Julie Brudell lost her job at Northern Ireland’s Ballykelly Primary School last year, following a wave of redundancies. But, discussions amongst the redundancy candidates discovered one common characteristic, of the 15 teachers employed by Ballykelly the four made redundant were all Protestant.
While Ms Brudell was offered, and accepted, an alternative post in the school's nursery unit, she told an employment tribunal she was “devastated” to lose her role teaching younger children.
The tribunal examined how, while a state-controlled school, the majority of pupils at Ballykelly were Catholics, ruling: “It is clear that there was an awareness that the Roman Catholic pupils now outnumbered the Protestant ones, that the school had lost so many children already, and ‘would lose even more depending on who was made redundant’.”
According to the tribunal, the school’s governors were “led into error by their perception that fair employment legislation did not apply to the process” they adopted for Ms Brudell’s redundancy.
The tribunal found that Ms Brudell “suffered an act of discrimination on the ground of religious belief”, as the school’s “overriding interest was to protect and secure the school’s future viability”.
Religious discrimination can happen in any workplace, whether it’s a manger’s demand that you remove religious garments or a refusal to acknowledge spiritual holidays.
If you’ve been unfairly targeted by discriminatory employers or colleagues, employment law solicitors are here to make sure such actions are not forgotten and apologies can be made through financial compensation.
