Home Correspondent
A train conductor from Warwickshire, who was fired after posting on social media that he did not want to live in a “Muslim alcohol-free caliphate”, is protected by equality law and can have a full tribunal, a judge has ruled on August 4.
Judge Battisby agreed with West Midlands Trains that the discrimination case bought by Jeremy Sleath, a self-described secular atheist, had little chance of success but did order Sleath to pay a costs deposit of £500 to have the matter settled at a full tribunal.
The judge ruled the 63-year-old was entitled to argue that his opinion was equivalent to a religious belief, a judge said. This ruling came at a preliminary assessment of Sleath’s dismissal after he took to Facebook to celebrate the reopening of pubs in England following the Coronavirus lockdown.
Sleath claimed that his dismissal for gross misconduct was discriminatory against his convictions. He is also bringing a claim for unfair dismissal.
He told an employment tribunal that he opposes one-religion and one-party states and believes that “all religions and none should exist in harmony”. He added that he was “serious” about his beliefs.
Judge David Battisby ruled that “the specific beliefs that Mr Sleath holds …are philosophical beliefs protected by the Equality Act 2010” and that his case could go to a full tribunal. Sleath, who had worked for West Midlands Trains for 17 years, was said to make “regular posts on Facebook with a view to stimulating discussion”.
In July last year he posted: ‘Thank f*** our pubs open up today. We cannot let our way of life become like some sort of Muslim alcohol-free caliphate just to beat Covid-19.’
Following a complaint to West Midlands Trains, he posted, ‘Apparently, someone has complained about a comment I made about hoping the UK never becomes an alcohol-free Muslim caliphate! (Or Islamic State). Unbelievable, but true! If that’s a controversial statement now, the world’s gone mad!
‘Incidentally, I wouldn’t want the UK to become any sort of religious or theocratic state, whether Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Chinese politburo, or even Christian. I wouldn’t even want an atheist state, my faith, if it involved banning other beliefs.’
Sleath said that he may have misunderstood the exact meaning of caliphate and was “thinking of Isis”.
