Today, 2 December, the Equality and Human Rights Commission published its updated Guidance on religion and belief in the workplace. It also published Religion or belief – is the law working?, which explores whether Great Britain’s equality and human rights legal framework gives sufficient protection to individuals with a religion or belief and religion or belief organisations, while balancing the rights of others under the Equality Act 2010. The evaluation focuses on four questions:
- Is the legal approach to defining a religion or a belief effective?
- Are the Equality Act exceptions allowing religion or belief requirements to influence employment decisions sufficient and appropriate?
- Does the law sufficiently protect employees wishing to manifest a religion or belief at work?
- Does the law sufficiently protect service users and service providers in relation to religion or belief?