Corporate Sustainability pt 2: The individual

In what can likely described as a landmark case in UK discrimination law, Tim Nicholson has successfully won an appeal against being fired on his views about climate change.

Tim and his lawyer, Shah Qureshi appeared on the Law Report recently in what was a fascinating conversation into the fringes of discrimination law definitions.

Tim Nicholson: Mine is not a faith-based or a spiritual-based belief, it is grounded in the overwhelming scientific evidence and it's the combination of that scientific evidence with the moral and ethical imperatives to do something about it, that is distinct from a religion.

Shah Qureshi: Tom was the head of sustainability at one of the largest property development companies in the UK, Grainger PLC, and he's employed to help them with their environmental policy on such issues as climate change, and he's a person who takes a political stance on the environment and climate change, and leads his life according to those principles. And what's happened is that he raised a number of issues for example, an issue about the chief executive flying someone out to take his Blackberry to him in Ireland because he'd forgotten it, and he raised issues about carbon footprints, gas-guzzling cars and that sort of thing. He says as a result of that he was pushed out. The company say that he was made redundant, and he issued proceedings in the Employment Tribunal in the UK, and one of the things that he raised was that he'd been discriminated against on the basis of his religion or belief and there are regulations making that unlawful. And he's just won a case in the Appeals stage, confirming that his views are covered by the UK discrimination law. (http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2009/2748370.htm#transcript)

Does this open the floodgates and should recruiters run for the hills when a climate change activist sends in a resume? I think not. Tim still needed to pass a number of legal tests to get to where he is now. Firstly he had to show that his beliefs in climate change were a key part in shaping his life - essentially it was not a simple opinion but a heat felt belief. Tim would rarely travel by car, refuse to fly, eco-renovated his home and eats locally farmed produce.

Secondly it needs to be proved that Tim was dismissed because of his views; and that if he was dismissed for his views that they were not interfering with his ability to carry out the inherent requirements of the job. Seeing as Tim was head of sustainability it would be highly unlikely that being a climate change activist would be detrimental to his job.

The company claims Tim was made redundant as his role could be covered through his duties being subsumed within other posts. Either way watch this space as it may very well have implications for Australian HR professionals, especially since climate change is a hot topic here to say for the next few decades at least.

For more information, a good place to start is the actual Law Report interview, broadcast 24th November 2009 http://www.abc.net.au/rn/lawreport/stories/2009/2748370.htm#transcript