Can COVID-19 vaccine refusal be deemed as religious discrimination?

In Wierowska v HC-One Oval Ltd ET/1403077/21, the employment tribunal held that an employee’s refusal to have a coronavirus vaccination was intimately related to her Roman Catholic religion. She was therefore able to bring a claim for religious discrimination.

The Claimant is a care worker who was dismissed by her employer in April 2021. She claimed that part of the reason for her dismissal was that she had refused to have a coronavirus vaccination

on religious grounds.

In particular, Ms Wierowska believes that it is contrary to

the tenets of her Roman Catholic faith to:

• alter blood by adding “man made” vaccines, as “blood

is God given” and sacrosanct; and

• “use foetuses in the creation of COVID vaccines”, as life

is sacrosanct.

During a preliminary hearing the judge decided that the Claimant was entitled to rely on her religion as a protected characteristic in these circumstances.

The tribunal rejected the care home’s argument that Ms Wierowska’s view on vaccines was a philosophical point of view, rather than a religious belief, and that it would have to meet the conditions set out in Grainger plc v Nicholson [2010] IRLR 4 EAT (including that it was not simply an opinion based on available information). The tribunal concluded that the Claimant was clear that

her claim was based on her religious faith. This was not a philosophical belief case and the test in Grainger was not relevant. The question was how closely Ms Wierowska’s opposition to vaccines was connected to her religious faith.

The judge said: (...) I am satisfied that her views about the vaccine are intimately connected with her religious faith, and there is a sufficiently close and direct nexus between her refusal to take a covid vaccine and her underlying beliefs.

The conclusion to be considered by employers is that employees may have other than anti-vaccination views as reasons for not being vaccinated, which could mean a mandatory vaccination policy is discriminatory.

A particular religious belief does not have to be mandated by the religion to be protected under

the Equality Act 2010. Employers should be aware of the risk of discrimination arising, even where

an employee’s religious beliefs do not appear to be mainstream.