Fired For Wearing A Collar
Here’s an interesting account of a legal case in Great Britain, involving the dismissal of a midwife from her employment as a consequence of her insistence on wearing the silver collar that symbolized her status as a consensual slave:
The UK is not yet ready to recognise “consensual slavery”.
The issue arose last week as the long-predicted collision between protections for “philosophical belief” and proponents of the BDSM (bondage, discipline, sado-masochistic) lifestyle hit the courts in Bedford. In balance was the claim by a local midwife that her dismissal for wearing an emblem of her beliefs – a silver collar – was discriminatory.
Not so, according to North and East Herts Health Authority, which represented this as purely an issue of health and safety.
Nonsense, shot back the midwife, alleging a distinctly lesser degree of fastidiousness over the wearing of other traditional (religious) symbols and costume. And the game was afoot.
The heart of the matter was whether her lifestyle was capable of constituting a belief in accordance with the employment equality (religion or belief) regulations 2003, which have already seen beliefs in foxes’ rights and the hypothesis of man-made global warming – not to mention a belief in the higher purpose of public service broadcasting – all ruled capable of being protected philosophical beliefs.
