Recognising Religious Festivals
Religious festivals are an important part of
people's lives. Irrespective of your faith, or lack of faith,
the law was developed and endorsed as far back as December 2003 and
it made discrimination on the grounds of religion unlawful.
The CWU have seen in recent times that despite the
carriage of this law, our members wishing to practice their faith
have seen inexcusable barriers put in their way and these have been
successfully challenged by the CWU on various occasions. Employers
should really know now that as long as the request has been made in
good time, it will be difficult to objectively justify turning down
a request to allow someone some time off to observe their religious
festival. As a worker it is helpful to your case to ensure you give
the employer as much notice as possible - put your request in
writing and do not rely on verbal assurances as potentially this
will not be worth anything when it comes to trying to prove you
made the request!
If you feel you have been harshly treated by your manager as a result of a request to take time off to observe a religious festival you need to contact your local CWU representative to get advice as to what steps might be open to you. You might want to consider a grievance, as a way forward - either way you should know your employment rights.
The following link leads to the BBC Interfaith Calendar, which is a very useful tool in determining the dates of religious festivals or holy days: http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/tools/calendar/
