Tuesday 23 September 2003

Here's one you really couldn't make up

Who's going to start a business when this kind of thing is being introduced:
EMPLOYERS may have to provide prayer-rooms for staff and allow religious holidays as part of radical new laws to prevent discrimination at work.
I imagine that employment law is a "reserved" matter and therefore beyond the powers of the occupants of our own expensive parliament. That's a pity for I am sure that the massed ranks of Glaswegian socialist MSPs would love to sort out this legal conundrum:
Lawyers say the provisions also throw up a number of issues in terms of sectarianism, especially in the west of Scotland. Employers would be subject to a tribunal claim unless they offer a "rigorous" recruitment policy, open to both Catholics and Protestants.
A policy of limiting hiring to proven supporters of Partick Thistle may not get you off the hook.