Equality Commission acted in good faith
I REFER to David Gaston’s letter (Write Back, October 15), in which he states: “The upshot of the Supreme Court ruling, as I understand it, is that the commission (Equality Commission for Northern Ireland) has, in effect, assisted in attempting to deprive the bakers of their human rights to hold their own religious beliefs.”
Mr Gaston’s understanding of the role of the Equality Commission is entirely incorrect.
The Equality Commission is “an independent public body, established under the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to advance equality, promote equality of opportunity, encourage good relations and challenge discrimination through promotion, advice and enforcement (Equality Commission for Northern Ireland website).”
Before retiring, I was a human resources manager and director, accumulating more than 40 years’ experience. When new equality legislation came along — and there was an abundance of it — it was my responsibility to review relevant company policies and practices, amend these where necessary, communicate these amended policies to all employees, provide appropriate training and then monitor compliance with those new/amended policies.
In my experience, the Equality Commission, when requested, provided invaluable training and advice and acted at all times in a thoroughly open, fair and professional manner.
Their commitment to the promotion of equality in the workplace and in the provision of services was unmistakeable.
In the process of bedding-in new legislative requirements, it was inevitable that unpredicted situations would arise. On two occasions, an employer for whom I worked was found to have breached equality laws. Lessons were learned from those experiences and we were better employers as a result.
The law is now clear in relation to the circumstances in which a service provider can decline business, based on religious conviction.
In this respect, the Equality Commission and Supreme Court has done a very good job.
There should be no future occasion when a service provider accepts an order, accepts payment for that order and then later repudiates the contract so entered into, while claiming it had done nothing wrong.
Nor will a customer have a right to feel offended if he/she is made aware of the service provider’s beliefs before an attempt is made to place an order.
In this whole episode, I cannot see where the Equality Commission, the High Court judge and the Appeal Court judges did anything other than act in good faith.
It might be better for all concerned to accept that and move on.
NAME AND ADDRESS WITH EDITOR