9 April 2020 was a Jewish high holiday, one of the days during Passover on which work is forbidden.

In Mr Philip Bialick v NNE Law Limited [2022] UKET 2405912/2020, Mr Bialick, an Orthodox Jew who worked as a litigation executive, had booked a day’s leave on 9 April, but NNE told him to attend work because in the fortnight immediately before 9 April he had been absent from work because of illness and the need to self-isolate to avoid spreading COVID-19. NNE’s practice was that its case-handler employees were not allowed to be away from their office for more than two weeks (a policy of which he was unaware [41.a]) and they therefore required his attendance even though it was a pre-booked holiday [1-3].