{"id":2990,"date":"2015-02-09T16:45:43","date_gmt":"2015-02-09T16:45:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2990"},"modified":"2015-02-10T14:41:17","modified_gmt":"2015-02-10T14:41:17","slug":"will-vicars-workers-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2990","title":{"rendered":"Will vicars have workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rights?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Years of torment for one vicar could at last be coming to an end \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as well as the end of practices that deny thousands of Church of England vicars access to full employment rights.<\/p>\n

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A landmark unfair dismissal case starting tomorrow (Tuesday February 10) between a vicar and the Church of England at the Court of Appeal could not only resolve an individual\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s long-running case, but could also pave the way for the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s faith workers to be finally awarded basic employment rights.<\/p>\n

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Unite member Rev Mark Sharpe, worked as a vicar until he driven out of his parish in Worcestershire by a campaign of hate he endured for several years.<\/p>\n

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The background to the case rests on how Rev Sharpe, his wife and their four children endured a campaign of intimidation from parishioners when they moved to the rectory in a remote Worcestershire village in 2005 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c until they left there in 2009.<\/p>\n

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Unite argued Rev Sharpe was an employee when he sought redress for the loss of his job \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but the Church contended that he was \u00e2\u20ac\u0098an office holder\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and so not covered by current employment rights legislation.<\/p>\n

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The employment appeal tribunal ruled in his favour \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and now the Church of England is seeking to overturn that ruling on appeal.<\/p>\n

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Office holders \u00e2\u20ac\u201c not employees<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

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The source of the dispute centres around the Church\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s denying ministers basic employment protections. It maintains that ministers are office holders rather than employees and that they are only governed by the law derived from the church itself.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is deeply disappointing that the Church of England has gone to such lengths to avoid its responsibility as an employer,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Sally Kosky, Unite national officer.<\/p>\n

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The earlier employment appeal tribunal ruled that Rev Sharpe and the Church of England were in an employer\/employee relationship. It found that the Church had failed to protect him in line with its duty as an employer.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur legal opinion, which is backed by a previous employment appeal tribunal, is that Rev Sharpe was an employee,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Sally.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt cannot be that on the one hand the church takes huge strides forward on gender equality, yet on the other remains in the dark ages on fundamental employment rights.<\/p>\n

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\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMark has had to endure a dreadful, needless process, but Unite has been proud to back him every step of the way and will continue to do so. There is much at stake here, not only for Mark, but many other faith workers who are unable to seek justice for unfair treatment,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she added.<\/p>\n

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Unite believes that a positive decision by the Appeal Court will have a major impact on faith workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 employment protection and ensure that, as with other workers, they can seek justice for unfair treatment under the law of the land.<\/p>\n

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Years of torment for one vicar could at last be coming to an end \u00e2\u20ac\u201c as well as the end of practices that deny thousands of Church of England vicars access to full employment rights.     A landmark unfair dismissal case starting tomorrow (Tuesday February 10) between a vicar and the Church of England […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2993,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[234,233,218],"wps_subtitle":"Landmark employment case begins","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2990"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2992,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2990\/revisions\/2992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2990"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2990"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2990"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}