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Man sacked for beard size
A young Muslim railway worker who claims he was sacked after a row over the length of his beard has brought what is believed to be the first case against an employer under new laws which ban discrimination on religious grounds. Unfair treatment on grounds of race and sex have long been illegal but Tony Blair's government extended legislation to cover religious discrimination last year, probably in an attempt to placate Britain's 1.6 million Muslim population which has felt vulnerable in the wake of the Iraq war. For many years, Muslims have campaigned for legislation to ban religious discrimination but successive governments have stood out against this, partly because of the difficulty in finding a legal distinction between mainstream religions and "cults". The rarely used law on blasphemy covered only Christianity.An employment tribunal in London is now being told that Mohsin Mohmed, 23, a customer services assistant, was sacked from his job with Virgin West Coast Trains after he refused to cut his beard. He was asked repeatedly to trim his beard by senior Virgin staff at Euston, a mainline London station. When Mohmed, from Ilford, Essex, refused to serve alcoholic drinks to customers in the first-class lounge, a manager suggested he should wear gloves. Mohmed told the hearing he reduced his beard to "one fist length" — about four inches — but at the end of a six-month probationary period he was sacked anyway in February this year. He has now brought a claim of racial and religious discrimination and harassment against Virgin West Coast Trains. He has been growing his beard since he was 18, Mohmed told the tribunal. "According to my teachings a male from the Islamic faith cannot trim his beard shorter than a fist length," he said. Posted by: tipper 2004-10-16 |
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