In M v P Care Home Ltd and others ET/1600651/2013, M, who was employed as a registered nurse at a care home, is a Christian. She brought an unfair dismissal claim and various other claims, including a claim for religious harassment. M argued that a manager, Ms Neilson (N), had regularly used foul language linked to religious references in front of her and her colleagues during evening and morning handovers. N accepted that she swore and occasionally swear words had a religious overtone, e.g. “oh my f******g God” and “Jesus f*****g Christ”. However, the tribunal accepted that the remarks were not directed at M and there was no intention to harass her personally, particularly as the manager had used the same sort of language when M was not present.

The tribunal reminded itself that under s.26 of the Equality Act harassment in such circumstances is defined as unwanted conduct related to an individual's religion that has the purpose [intentionally] or effect [unintentionally] of violating that individual's dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that person. Where any offense caused is unintentional, as was the case here, then, in deciding whether the definition of harassment has been met, the tribunal must take into account, the Claimant’s perception, the other circumstances of the case and whether it is reasonable for the conduct to amount to harassment.

The tribunal concluded that it was not reasonable for M to perceive the language used by N as creating an adverse environment for her. The tribunal did not consider that the remarks made related to M’s religion; they were commonly-used, albeit blasphemous, swearwords but were not in themselves abusive to any religion. [Note that the tribunal, however, did uphold M’s unfair dismissal claim because of procedural irregularities]

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