It’s payday this week so I’ll be happy to add my wee bit to Sara’s garden and that of the claimants against Robinson’s Bar - glad to see the fight to establish WORIADS is starting up here in Norn Iron.
It’ll also be interesting to see how our equality legislation will be relevant to this topic. For obvious historical reasons, NI has legal protections for religious belief, philosophical and political opinion and we don’t have the Equality Act 2010 but do we have the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998.
https://www.equalityni.org/Employers-Service-Providers/The-equality-law-framework
Excerpt:
'In addition, one of the equality laws, the Fair Employment & Treatment (NI) Order 1998, seeks to protect the rights of all people to hold and, within limits, express or demonstrate certain beliefs or opinions. In relation to employment, the protected grounds are religious belief, philosophical belief and political opinion. Thus, an employer may not normally refuse to employ a person, or may not dismiss a person, merely because that person holds, or is perceived to hold, a particular religious or philosophical belief or political opinion, even if some other people may find those beliefs or opinions to be offensive. Harassment on those grounds is also unlawful.
However, that does not mean that a person who holds a particular set of protected beliefs or opinions has a right to express, or demonstrate their support for, those beliefs or opinions in ways that would discriminate against or harass other persons on any of the protected grounds in situations where the law prohibits such discrimination and harassment, such as in workplaces.'
For those interested in NI Employment Tribunals etc here’s a factsheet from the Labour Relations Agency:
Key Differences in Employment Law, Northern Ireland and Great Britain, April 2023
https://www.lra.org.uk/sites/default/files/2023-06/Key%20differences%20in%20employment%20law%20between%20NI%20and%20GB%20April%202023.pdf