A Christian school assistant who lost her job after sharing Facebook posts that were deemed transphobic and homophobic by her employer is to have her case reheard by an employment tribunal.
Kristie Higgs lost her job at Farmor’s School in Fairford, Gloucestershire, after she expressed her views about how LGBT relationships and sex education were taught in schools. The posts were shared on her private Facebook profile, which did not name her employer.
The school received complaints about the posts and she was later dismissed for gross misconduct in relation to discrimination, inappropriate use of social media and online comments.
She claimed that her views were compared with Nazism when the school questioned her about the posts.
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An employment tribunal in 2020 dismissed Higgs’ case against the school, finding it did not directly discriminate or harass her on the basis of her religion.
The ruling acknowledged that Higgs’ beliefs are protected by the Equality Act, but found she was dismissed because some of the content in the articles she had linked to could lead someone to think that she “was hostile towards the LGBT community, and trans people in particular”.
Higgs appealed against the ruling, and in a judgment handed down today (16 June), the Employment Appeal Tribunal sent the case back to the employment tribunal to be reconsidered.
The judge said the tribunal should have concluded that there was a close or direct connection between Higgs’ Facebook posts and her protected beliefs, and that the tribunal had been required to assess whether the school’s actions were necessary for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others, while recognising the claimant’s rights to freedom of belief and freedom of expression.
President of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, Dame Jennifer Eady, said in her judgment: “The freedom to manifest belief (religious or otherwise) and to express views relating to that belief are essential rights in any democracy, whether or not the belief in question is popular or mainstream and even if its expression may offend.”
Responding to the judgment, Higgs said: “I am pleased that the courts have overturned the previous judgment, but I am frustrated by the further delays to receiving justice.
“From the beginning, despite the many attempts by the school to suggest otherwise, this has always been about my Christian beliefs and me being discriminated against for expressing them in my own time.
“I was, and still am, appalled by the sexual ideology that was being introduced to my son’s Church of England primary school. I will never forget the moment, shaking and tearful, that I was ordered to leave the school premises after my Christian beliefs were aligned with Nazism.”
Andrea Williams, chief executive of the Christian Legal Centre, which supported Higgs with her case, said: “This is a win for Kristie, but Mrs Justice Eady should have had the courage to exonerate her. Instead, she is suggesting a rehearing before the same tribunal that heard the case in the first place.
This has always been about my Christian beliefs and me being discriminated against for expressing them in my own time.” – Kristie Higgs
“We press on in this important case. We are pleased that the force of the facts in this case meant the judge had to do the right thing. I believe this for all our cases and here the judge couldn’t go anywhere else.
“The previous judgment that upheld her sacking could not stand. In what should have been a cut and dry case of discrimination, however, it has been unnerving to encounter the series of obstacles blocking Kristie securing justice.”
Commenting on the case, Vivienne Shirley, trainee solicitor at Charles Russell Speechlys, said: “Rather than the court coming to a concrete decision on gender critical beliefs, the case has been sent back to the employment tribunal.
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“The EAT found the original tribunal had applied the wrong test before coming to its decision. This appeal is therefore not the end of the saga and the tribunal will have to look at this again to decide whether the school’s actions went too far in limiting Mrs Higgs’ freedom of expression.
“In these cases, it’s very much a balancing act based on the specific facts of the case – what was said to whom, how and why.”
