Is denying time off work to attend a music festival discriminatory?

Personally I would ban all breaks for personal reasons- smoking or religion, because they do not apply to people equally- if somebody not spiritual can't get time off for a music festival why should anyone? I don't agree with time off to go and pray either- they can easily have an accomodation for this as it states clearly in the Quran that you have to follow the standards of the place you are living, Christians , Hindus, Buddhists do not take prayer/meditation breaks so Muslims shouldn't either=, when they are in Christian/ non Muslim countries.

There is no such thing as protected philosophical belief.

Yes there is.

https://www.equalityhumanrights.com/guidance/protected-characteristics/religion-or-belief-discrimination

I knew someone who took Shrove Tuesday off as a religious holiday and spent the day making and eating pancakes.

I liked the rule at a supermarket near where I lived, if you wanted Eid or other religion’s holidays off you had to work Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and Good Friday,

According to the report in the Telegraph, she was told she could not have the time off because she was already taking several lengthy periods of leave and the charity wouldn’t be able to find cover for the dates of the festival.

@67789d She is apparently 49.

Of course not discrimination.

If you are a practicing Christian, that period is important 😂

I'm not sure of the reasoning behind Easter Monday - my very devout Christian Godmother would have a "He is risen" poster up on Easter Sunday.

The other one I'm not sure about is Boxing Day, what is the religious significance of the day after the birth (not that it was in December anyway).

From the Independent article, it sounds like those periods of leave were sickness, though. And she is entitled to holiday leave even if she's been off sick a lot. Of course, the Independent article is a bit vague and I may have got a false impression

I don't think it's belief/philosophical discrimination, but I do wonder if the decision not to allow leave was a good faith one, or the result of management just being pissed off that she'd had so much time off sick.

This is just the latest example of just how silly and utterly bonkers the subject of political correctness has become.

Really scraping the barrel on this one.

You couldn't make it up!

As with all annual leave you need to apply for it early and be the only member of staff off at that time.
This person should have asked for annual leave as soon as the dates were published…

Depends on the company - I’ve never worked anywhere that only allows one person to be off at once, and last minute leave is generally not an issue either.

Well, no, it’s not discrimination, because she lost.

No idea, but many years ago I had a part-time shit job in a shop, had managed to win a pair of Glastonbury Tickets, back when it really was wroth going , and boss said no. Sadly I had been conditioned to always stick to rules... have regretted not just going to this day!

How TF is that discrimination? LMAO

As a practicing Catholic, I’m tempted to ask for various obscure saints’ days off. So many, many days I could get time off for being pious. The whole year, really. Alas, also being Catholic, my conscience would not allow me to do that. I might call into work late on Ash Wednesday, but for the rest, I’ll worship on my own time. Thus observing the implied 11th Commandment: Use the brain I gave you.

Not only is there, there is this ruling that being a Vegan comes within the definition.
https://www.vegansociety.com/get-involved/international-rights-network/veganism-workplace

It's not wonder she chanced her arm with rulings like this.

How the fuck is it discrimination?

I'm not sure that's entirely correct. Christmas and Easter are statutory public holidays.

However, yes, if paid time-off was specifically given for things like hanukkah etc then that would put the employer in a world of difficulty.

As I understand it, employers generally treat a request for time-off for Hanukkah, Eid or Diwali etc as just an ordinary request for paid leave.

It depends on the size of the company. My DH works for a company with over 4,000 employees.

Interestingly, it's a manufacturing company and they shut the factory down for two weeks every August to do maintenance etc. Factory/production workers are all required to take those two weeks as mandatory paid leave

Seems ridiculous to refuse the leave, why does a marketing executive need cover?!!

but not discrimination

I work on the railway, so safety is always at the top of everything we do.
Trackside can be a dangerous place to work.

A Religious Exemption could have killed a young man recently.
As we know Sikh’s are exempt from wearing a hard hat on site.
So far, so good.

However, an Electrical engineer was wearing a gold kursi, which made contact with something and gave him an electric shock.

He and his manager were both under the impression that it came under religious exemption, so he was entitled to wear it.

That ambiguity could have got him killed.

His attitude was: if a Sikh’s turban is exempt, which could cause a fatal accident on site, then surely my kursi comes under the same category.

I read title and silently said to myself ffs - glad they lost

I bet she was allowed to not attend school and wear correct uniform as a child - entitled rule breaker

No, she's having a laugh and trying to chance her arm.

Hillarious.

And now presumably she’s made her position at work untenable as your relationship with your employer isn’t exactly going to survive having sued them and lost.

I’d imagine dismissal for that would not be against the law. At the very least she’d be at the top of the list the next time redundancy comes up.