Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination, and the Workplace

Religious Freedom, Religious Discrimination and the Workplace was first published in 2008 with a revised edition in 2016. In a form of dual overlapping but distinct protection, the tension of which lies at the heart of Vickers’ book, the prohibition of religious discrimination ran alongside the protection of religious freedom. Whilst there had been numerous laws protecting religious freedom within specific contexts, religious freedom as a general right was given legal protection for the first time by the Human Rights Act 1998. The Regulations and the Human Rights Act radically changed the legal scene. While law regulating or promoting religion is hardly new, these laws amounted to a radical ‘shift from passive toleration to the active promotion of religious liberty as a right’. The Regulations prohibited straightforward direct discrimination where there was no possible justification, such as a Muslim being denied a job with no religious connection due to Islamophobic stereotypes.