School worker sacked for sharing her beliefs around LGBT+ relationships wins appeal

The Court of Appeal have ruled that the decision to dismiss a teaching assistant who shared posts on Facebook that criticised plans to teach about LGBT+ relationships in primary schools was unlawfully discriminatory.

Kirsty Higgs was employed as a pastoral administer at Farmor’s School in Fairford. She shared two posts on Facebook that related to teaching about LGBT+ relationships at her son’s Church of England School, which was not the school that she worked at. The posts referred to ‘brainwashing’ children and ‘supressing Christianity and removing it from the public arena’.

She was dismissed for gross misconduct after Farmor’s School received an anonymous complaint that she had expressed “homophobic and prejudiced views”. Mrs Higgs subsequently brought claims for direct discrimination and harassment on the grounds of religion or belief.

This case, which has been through the Employment Tribunal, the Employment Appeal Tribunal and now the Court of Appeal has provided some real food for thought in terms of how employers should be balancing the rights of employees to express views that potentially conflict with the views held by other protected groups.

Mrs Higg’s case was similar to another case heard by the Court of Appeal in 2021. In the case of Page v NHS Trust Development Authority the court held that Mr Page’s removal was a non-executive director after expressing disapproval for same-sex couple adoption was not discrimination on the grounds of religion. This was due to the way in which Mr Page had expressed his views.

In Mrs Higg’s case, she simply shared two posts on Facebook. The Court of Appeal said this wasn’t sufficient for the school to justify dismissal.

The case shows that very careful consideration needs to be given when deciding on disciplining an employee for expressing their beliefs. There can be a fine line between what would justify dismissal and what would not and if employers are in any way uncertain, they should seek legal advice.