Background

Keith Henderson was a Regional Organiser for the General Municipal and Boilermakers Union (GMB) and was dismissed for gross misconduct. He appealed to an Employment Tribunal, which found that he had been fairly dismissed but that he had also suffered unlawful direct discrimination and harassment on account of his “left-wing democratic socialist beliefs”, which included:

“(i) a belief in establishing ‘socialism through democratic processes and [propagating] its ideals within the context of a democratic political system through a working-class industrial and political movement’;

(ii) a belief in ‘workers’ control’.., a term meaning ‘participation in the management of factories and other commercial enterprises by the people who work there. Crossing workers’ picket lines contradicts this aim because it undermines workers’ ability to control their workplaces’” [6]

– and which the ET held to be protected beliefs. Continue reading →