(2) The Prison Service : Unlike the police, the only specifically permissible discrimination concerns height requirements. disproportionately more men than women. The absence of reference to clothing means that different rules for men and women on dress must be tested according to the normal employment case law, which at present gives employers substantial

doi:10.4324/9781843145585-65

Chapter

ABSTRACT

Employment by religious groups is excluded from the SDA 1975 ‘where the employment is limited to one sex so as to comply with the doctrines of the religion or to avoid offending the religious susceptibilities of a significant number of its followers’.167 The formula is repeated for cases of gender reassignment168 and on similar terms for sexual orientation.169 There is no parallel provision in the RRA 1976. The protection covers not only employment, but also the obtaining of relevant qualifications for the purposes of employment by that religious group. Such employment is not restricted to ministers. It could cover administrators and, for example, could permit teachers in a Muslim girls’ school to be restricted to women. There are, of course, specified GORs for cases under the Religion or Belief Regulations.170