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Government risks breach of EU discrimination ban
September 2, 2003 12:00 AM
The UK could be in the dock once again over its failure to implement EU legislation. This time it concerns a refusal to give gay and ethnic minority people the full benefit of EU protection against discrimination.
Sarah Ludford MEP, London's Euro-MP and European LibDem justice spokeswoman, has urged the European Commission to investigate whether the UK's purported implementation of the EU Race and Employment Directives respects the discrimination ban they impose.
Speaking in the European Parliament Sarah Ludford said:
"This government seems to be blatantly defying European equal rights law in allowing Churches and other religious organisations to discriminate against gay employees. They have bowed to a minority whose reactionary convictions blocked the appointment as bishop of Canon Jeffrey John."
"It is shocking that a British government which claims to be both progressive and European caves into prejudice from a vocal but backward group."
"The Blair government is also apparently failing to fully protect black and Asian citizens since it has bizarrely excluded discrimination on grounds of 'colour' when claiming to implement the EU ban on unequal treatment on racial or ethnic grounds. This does no credit to the 40-year lead in Europe that UK race relations law has given."
"The EU is rightly outlawing all kinds of discrimination, which have no place in a modern society. I call on the European Commission as the watchdog for respect of EU law to properly enforce the Directives in the UK for the benefit, not least, of my constituents in London."
Notes
(1) The Employment Directive is directive 2000/78 EC. Article 4 allows a religious organisation to apply a legitimate requirement based on religion but this "should not justify discrimination on another ground". This would mean for instance that a Catholic school could require a teacher to be a Catholic, but could not invoke the Pope's views on homosexuality to sack a gay teacher.
The UK legislation, the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2003 however in Clause 7 (3) allows a religious organisation to 'apply a requirement related to sexual orientation' in accordance with its doctrines or the convictions of its followers. Thus a Church of England school could presumably refuse to hire or promote a gay person on Biblical grounds of hostility to homosexuality, which the growing Evangelical wing of the CoE subscribes to.
(2) The Race Directive and the regulations are the Race Relations Act 1976 (Amendment) Regulations 2003. In a fit of legal nitpicking the government has said (Written Answer of Baroness Scotland, 24th June 2003, Hansard (HL), Vol 650, Col WA 10) that the regulations do not ban discrimination on grounds of colour as the Directive does not explicitly mention it, only 'racial or ethnic origin'!
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