A Christian woman has won her unfair dismissal case after being fired for expressing her views on marriage in her electoral manifesto as a mayoral candidate in Lewisham, south-east London.
Maureen Martin was fired by London & Quadrant Housing Trust (L&Q) following three complaints of “hate speech” after her leaflet was distributed to 205,000 registered voters.
The lawsuit for unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment has now been settled out of court in her favour.
Speak the truth
In her manifesto, Martin promised to “cut through political correctness and state the truth that natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children”.
She was summoned to an “investigation meeting” by L&Q after critics posted the leaflet on Twitter.
Martin was told that her tweets and her manifesto were “homophobic, and had breached L&Q’s social media policy and had potentially brought the company into disrepute”.
She was later dismissed for gross misconduct after 13 years of service because her beliefs were “perceived to be discriminatory, hurtful and offensive”.
Undeterred
Martin told Premier Christian News that she was frustrated that Christians in the UK are being discriminated against for their religious beliefs.
natural marriage between a man and a woman is the fundamental building block for a successful society, and the safest environment for raising children
She hopes the success of her case will encourage other Christians in the public sphere to speak out against religious discrimination.
“It does highlight the fact you have to challenge these views, you have to challenge the judgement, you have to challenge what has happened to you, you can’t just walk away.”
Martin’s case was backed by the Christian Legal Centre.
Adrian Smith
In 2012, the CI helped Adrian Smith, a Christian who was demoted by a housing trust in Manchester because of comments he made on Facebook about gay marriage.
In Mr Smith’s successful High Court case against his employer, the judge ruled that Smith had ‘done nothing wrong’ in describing same-sex weddings in churches as “an equality too far”.
When his bosses were alerted to the post, they accused him of gross misconduct, removed him from his managerial position and cut his salary by 40 per cent.
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