The Christian Institute (CI) has urged Parliament to uphold freedom of religion in the workplace.
A letter jointly sent from the CI, the Evangelical Alliance (EA) and the Catholic Union (CU) to the chair of a parliamentary Inquiry into human rights at work, asked the chair to ‘make religious freedom a key part’ of the inquiry.
The three organisations have already submitted written evidence to the inquiry setting out their concerns.
The Inquiry, run by the Joint Committee on Human Rights and chaired by Harriet Harman KC, was launched in February this year and will examine freedom of thought, conscience and religion and freedom of expression in the workplace. It is considering questions including whether domestic law gives adequate protection for the rights of workers to be free from harassment at work by third parties on account of their religion or beliefs.
The letter, dated 21 August, said: ‘We know that too many Christians are unable to bring their whole selves to work, and in some cases face disadvantage or discrimination because of their faith, despite laws that should prevent this from happening. This is something experienced by people of other faiths as well.’
It pointed out that the CI receives hundreds of legal enquiries from Christians every year about their experiences in the workplace and said: ‘Freedom of religion should be just as important as other workplace rights.’
