Vindication for sacked registrar

Sep 1, 2014

A registrar sacked for saying she didn’t want to conduct same-sex weddings has been offered her job back. Margaret Jones was accused of “gross misconduct” and “bringing the council into disrepute” despite her willingness to deal with related administrative tasks.

Her appeal was upheld unanimously by a panel which decided that Central Bedfordshire Council had not fully investigated ways of accommodating Margaret’s religious beliefs about marriage. They also found evidence that in other cases arrangements had been made to “accommodate individual staff situations”.

The dismissal of Margaret Jones, the Senior Deputy Registrar at Bedford registry office, echoes that of Lillian Ladele. Miss Ladele, also a registrar, was pushed out of her job at Islington council in 2008 after asking her managers to accommodate her belief that marriage is the union of one man and one woman.

After her initial employment tribunal vindication was overturned, she ultimately lost her appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in January 2013.