A Jewish lawyer has won more than £26,000 in a religious discrimination case after he was sacked for not coming into work during Passover. Philip Bialick, who was brought up in the Orthodox faith and strictly observes religious holidays, had booked time off from work specifically for the festival.
But he fell ill beforehand and was absent from the office in the weeks before Passover, an employment tribunal heard. As a result his employers - who had a policy preventing staff from being away from work for more than two weeks at a time - demanded he return on the second day of the holiday.
During Passover, which commemorates the Hebrews' liberation from Egypt, no work is permitted on the first and final two days of the celebratory period. Mr Bialick was forced to break these rules to send an email explaining that he could not come back to the office as was observing the holiday.
But the company fired him for failing to turn up to work. He has now successfully sued his employer for discrimination.
The hearing in Manchester was told Mr Bialick, who has many years of experience in handling civil claims, started working at NNE Law Ltd in the city in January 2020 as a litigation executive. NNE Law Ltd, based in Manchester, is a small company which specialises in personal injury and other civil claims.
The panel heard it was run by brothers Ali and Arson Nazokkar at the time. In February 2020 - two months before Passover - Mr Bialick booked nine days off to cover the religious holiday. At the end of the following month, shortly after the UK was plunged into the first national covid lockdown, Mr Bialick fell ill with a bad chest and cough, the panel was told.
The hearing was told he had previously been anxious about coming into work but had continued to do so as law was considered essential work although he did make requests to work remotely. After Mr Bialick contacted the NHS about his illness, he was told to stay at home for two weeks and he forwarded his isolation notes to his bosses.
The company then sent him a letter on April 3, but as it was second class, it did not arrive until April 8 - the day before he was due to observe Passover - the panel was told. The letter read: "You have been off work since 30/03/202 due to self diagnosed flu like symptoms and it seems that your second isolation period will be ending on 08/04/2020, however we note that you have time booked off from 07/04 to 17/04.
"Due to company policy and our time sensitive nature of work we can no longer authorise this due to this resulting in your time away from the office permitted and the recent Covid 19 Epidemic causing staffing issues."
The letter finished by reminding him he was expected in work on April 9, the second day of Passover when work is not permitted. Mr Bialick, who was not aware of this company policy, then replied saying he was still feeling ill and explained that he was celebrating the Jewish festival so did not go in on April 9.
The tribunal heard Mr Nazokkar then sent him a dismissal letter that day saying they had been 'left with no alternative' but to sack him. Mr Bialick then successfully sued them for indirect discrimination at a tribunal.
Employment Judge Mark Leach concluded: "Where Jewish employees wish to take holidays to enable religious observance, they need to book holidays from their unfixed statutory and/or contractual entitlement. The practice of cancelling holidays booked for that purpose or to face dismissal therefore requires Jewish employees to choose whether to work when they are not permitted to work or be dismissed.
"That places Jewish employees whose faith requires they do not work on certain days at a particular disadvantage when instructed to cancel annual leave." Mr Bialick was awarded £26,479.86 in compensation.
