UK: You can't sack me, I'm with Gaia

Full story (here).

Sacked employees can play the 'Green Card', and make wrongful dismissal claims against their former employers on grounds of their belief, a judge has ruled.

Paradoxically, this could also protect non-believers - such as climate skeptics and atheist vicars, the latter being the norm in the Church of England, which we'll come to in a moment.

So what's happened? Basically, a former employee has had his right to sue the employer affirmed by an appeals judge, on the grounds that his environmentalist views are a philosophical belief (and not a political view). No such Tribunal has yet been held, but may now take place.

The case was raised by a "sustainability officer" called Tim Nicholson, who had been made redundant by the property company Grainger last year. Nicholson argues that under the 'Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003', belief in the hypothesis of man-made global warming constitutes a religious or philosophical belief, and this affords protection from discrimination. In March, Nicholson won the right to sue from a regional employment tribunal. Grainger appealed against that decision, and Justice Burton's decision yesterday backs Nicholson, affirming his right to sue.

The ruling may be significant in the years to come. The number of environmentally-related positions such as "sustainability" officers and eco advisers has mushroomed in recent years - particularly in the public sector, where a future government (most likely Conservative) needs to make steep cuts. Could Nicholson help create a sacred employment class of eco-jobsworths, we wondered?