Building on a 2005 sex discrimination case decided by the House of Lords (see prior posting), yesterday in New Testament Church of God v. Stewart, ([2007] EWCA Civ 1004, Oct. 19, 2007), the England and Wales Court of Appeal upheld an Employment Appeal Tribunal’s decision that a pastor of The New Testament Church of God is an "employee" under the 1996 Employment Rights Act. This holding permits him to bring a claim for unfair dismissal after the Church accused him of financial irregularities and suspended him from his duties.
The Court of Appeal said, however, that whether a clergyman is an employee will vary from church to church and from religion to religion. It observed: "The religious beliefs of a community may be such that their manifestation does not involve the creation of a relationship enforceable at law between members of the religious community and one of their number appointed to minister to the others. The law should not readily impose a legal relationship on members of a religious community which would be contrary to their religious beliefs." Reporting on the decision, The Times pointed out that earlier cases had referred to ministers as "servants of God" who had been appointed to a holy office, instead of treating them in the same way as secular employees.
