Post Ladele, employers should be wary of exempting employees from sensitive duties, says David Tyme
In Ladele v LB Islington [2009] All ER (D) 100 (Jan) the claimant, who is a Christian, worked for LB Islington as a registrar of births, deaths and marriages for several years. The claimant considered a civil partnership to be a marriage in all but name only, and therefore the formation of a civil partnership was wrong. In 2004 she made it known that she was unwilling to undertake civil partnership ceremonies. The council in furtherance of its statutory duty decided that such ceremonies should be conducted by existing staff. The claimant made arrangements to change her rota to avoid civil partnership ceremonies. Subsequently, two other members of staff, one a Muslim and the other a Christian, similarly objected to performing civil partnership ceremonies: by way of compromise the council offered to limit their involvement to registration duties.
Disciplinary action
In March 2006 the claimant was accused of discrimination by two gay colleagues on grounds of sexual orientation and was threatened with disciplinary action if
