The appellant said that his human rights were infringed when, as a moslem, he was refsued time off from his work as a primary school teacher to attend prayers at the mosque on Fridays. He had subsequentlly been re-instated part-time, but complained that this affected his pension rights.
Held: Lord Denning MR said that whilst the European Convention on Human Rights was not part of English law, the courts would do their best to see that their decisions were in conformity with it. Nevertheless, care should be taken to avoid special privileges, with resultant discontent and even resentment, in the name of religious freedom, and: ‘The school time-table was well known to Mr Ahmad when he applied for the teaching post. It was for the usual teaching hours from Monday to Friday, inclusive. If he wished to have every Friday afternoon off for his prayers, either he ought not to have applied for this post: or he ought to have made it clear at the outset and entered into a 4.5 -day engagement only. This was the sensible thing for him to do. Instead he undertook full-time work without making any disclosure that he wanted Friday afternoon off for prayers. I think that section 30 can be applied to the situation perfectly well by reading it as subject to the qualification ‘if the school time-table so permits’. So read, it means that he is entitled to attend for religious worship during the working week if it can be arranged consistently with performing his teaching duties under his contract of employment . . I have no doubt that all headmasters will try to arrange their time-table so as to accommodate devout Muslims like Mr Ahmad: but I do not think they should be compelled to do so, if it means disrupting the work of the school and the well-being of the pupils.’
. . and ‘I see nothing in the European Convention to give Mr Ahmad any right to manifest his religion on Friday afternoons in derogation of his contract of employment: and certainly not on full pay.’
Orr LJ: ‘Nor, in my judgment, can the answer to the question raised by this appeal be that a Muslim teacher has a right to absent himself for Friday prayers if his doing so will cause only a small inconvenience in the school. This solution would have some attraction because in the present case one of the headmasters concerned, Mr Foley, was able to accommodate Mr Ahmad’s absence and it may be that others might have done so but for the policy adopted by the ILEA. But such a solution, quite apart from the grave practical disadvantage that it would involve detailed investigation in each case as to the degree of difficulty involved, is in my judgment unacceptable in principle since absence without leave in school hours would be a breach of contract even if the inconvenience were slight.’
Scarman LJ (dissenting) observed that society had changed since 1944, as had the legal background in terms of the UK’s international obligations and the acknowledged importance of eliminating discrimination of all kinds. He would therefore have been willing to give to section 30, which was admittedly incorporated into Mr Ahmad’s contract, a broad construction designed to avoid discrimination on the ground of religious observance, so that timetabling arrangements would be required to enable attendance at religious worship consistent with the duty of full-time service: all that Mr Ahmad had needed, on the facts, was a leeway of 45 minutes, which could and should have been accommodated.
Judges:
Lord Denning MR, Scarman LJ (dissenting
Citations:
[1978] QB 36, [1977] ICR 490
Statutes:
European Convention on Human Rights 9(1)
Jurisdiction:
England and Wales
Citing:
Appeal from – Ahmad v Inner London Education Authority EAT 1976
The appellant was a moslem junior school teacher. The Authority appealed an acceptance of his claim for unfair dismissal, having left his employment because he was not given time off to attend the mosque on Fridays. The Tribunal considered whether, . .
Cited by:
Appeal from – Ahmad v United Kingdom ECHR 1981
(Commision) The applicant was a devout Muslim. His religious duty was to offer prayers on Fridays and to attend a mosque if possible. He was employed as a full time primary school teacher. He complained that he was forced to resign because he was . .
Cited – Copsey v WWB Devon Clays Ltd CA 25-Jul-2005
The claimant said that his employer had failed to respect his right to express his beliefs by obliging him, though a Christian, to work on Sundays.
Held: The appeal failed. ‘The Commission’s position on Article 9, as I understand it, is that, . .
Lists of cited by and citing cases may be incomplete.
Employment, Human Rights
Updated: 17 May 2022; Ref: scu.229004