A Christian registrar who was sacked for indicating she would not be willing to conduct same sex weddings has been reinstated after a successful appeal in August.
Margaret Jones, was asked by her employers in 2013 whether her Christian beliefs would prevent her from conducting same sex weddings. The day before the first same sex ‘marriages’ were due to be performed, Margaret had a meeting with management and confirmed that, as a Christian, she believed marriage can only be between one man and one woman. At the meeting, Margaret was told the council’s position was that she either perform same sex ‘marriages’ or resign.
In April 2014, a formal investigation was launched after Margaret was accused of ‘gross misconduct’. Margaret went through an internal disciplinary process and explained that she would be willing to register the marriages and deal with administrative tasks. Since all marriages require two registrars to be present she could perform this part of the service and not actually ‘marry’ a same sex couple.
In May, Margaret was dismissed on the basis that her refusal to perform same sex weddings breached equality laws and ‘brought the council into disrepute’.
Margaret’s appeal against her dismissal was upheld unanimously by a panel of Central Bedfordshire Council Members. The panel decided that the council had not fully investigated ways of accommodating Margaret’s religious beliefs and that evidence had been found that in other cases ‘informal custom and practice arrangements had been developed in order to accommodate individual staff situations’.
