The recent Fahmy case (Ms D Fahmy v Arts Council England) in the Employment Tribunal has highlighted the risks for universities of harassment by their employees of their colleagues for their viewpoints.
The Equality Act 2010 prohibits harassment of people with various “protected characteristics” in specified contexts, including employment.
“Religion or belief” is one such characteristic, as we describe in our statement about what sorts of belief are protected following the landmark Forstater case.
Harassment includes engaging in unwanted conduct related to a relevant protected characteristic which has the effect of violating another person’s dignity, or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person.
Under Section 109 of the Equality Act, anything done by an employee in the course of their employment must be treated as also being done by their employer – it does not matter whether that thing is done with the employer’s knowledge or approval.
