Religious Celebrations

There have been many articles suggesting that under the Employment Equality (Religion & Belief) Regulations 2003, the traditional Christmas Party may be an example of discrimination against non-Christian employees. Employees would need to prove that they had been treated less favourably on the grounds of their religion, so consideration should be give to ensuring that organisational parties do not require activities forbidden by various faiths such as:

• Gambling (forbidden for Sikhs and Muslims)
• Alcohol (forbidden for Sikhs and Muslims)
• Going out on Friday/Friday night (the Jewish Sabbath and the Muslim holy day of the week)
• Only offering alcoholic drinks and meat dishes which are not Kosher(Jewish) or Halal (Muslims). It is not necessary to always offer Kosher/Halal meat – vegetarian food is an acceptable alternative

Where employees feel they have been discriminated for not participating in such activities they may be able to claim indirect discrimination on the grounds of their religion.

A recent People Management article suggested that holding a Christmas party during Advent may discriminate against Christian employees who do not feel able to celebrate Christmas until after December 24th.

It is certainly clear that employers should have a policy on how to manage requests for time off for holy days from other religions, such as Eid, Diwali or Vaisakhi and that blanket refusals to allow any time off for these occasions from any staff could be seen by an Employment Tribunal as evidence of religious discrimination. It is not required to allow every employee to take time off work to celebrate all their holy days each year, but to have a fair system to consider requests, which should be discussed with the workforce, as people may be able to take their days off around a religious festival, thus relieving expected burdens on covering work etc.

Additional details can be found by clicking on the following links:

The impact of the timing of Christmas parties on Christians

People Management report on Christmas Parties in the light of the Employment Equality (Religion & Belief) Regulations 2003

Telegraph report on Christmas parties and shut-downs

BBC interactive multifaith calendar to check dates of religious festivals