"As
a new member of the Khalsa in 2011, I am very pleased to say that the
employer's issue of wearing a Kirpan in the workplace has been quickly
resolved with UNITED SIKHS’ help.”
-Care worker Gian Singh thanking UNITED SIKHS for securing his Kirpan Rights
at work.
“UNITED SIKHS is pleased that good sense prevailed and that the Birmingham
Council and the Brooke Street Social Care Agency acknowledged a Sikh’s right
to wear a Kirpan at work,” said Mejindarpal, UNITED SIKHS legal director.
Birmingham UK – UNITED SIKHS has been successful last month in securing the
right of care worker Gianroop Singh to wear his Kirpan, a mandatory article of
his faith, after he was initially told by his employer that he had to take it
off at his workplace.
After taking Amrit (initiation) this year, Gianroop Singh, formerly Linden
Barrington, went to work as normal at a care home run by the Birmingham
Council. At first he did not encounter any problems in regard to the wearing
of any of the Panj Kakaar (five mandatory articles of faith).
However, he was eventually informed by managers that, largely on the grounds
of health and safety, he would not be allowed to wear his Kirpan in the course
of his employment.
At this point Gianroop Singh contacted UNITED SIKHS, whose legal team took it
up as it was a serious breach of his rights, under both national and
international law.
“We wrote to the Brooke Street Social Care Agency that hired Gianroop Singh
and the Birmingham Council which own the care home, citing legal authorities
for allowing him to wear his Kirpan. We also drew their attention to the
Equality and Human Rights Commission’s guidance on Sikh articles of faith,
which confirmed the rights of health workers to wear their kakaar,” said
Mejindarpal Kaur, UNITED SIKHS Legal Director.
“A few days later, Gianroop’s employment agency, Brooke Street Social Care,
called him for a meeting to give him the good news that he may wear his Kirpan
and that the Birmingham Council had issued a statement in support of it,” she
added.
You may read a previous press release on UNITED SIKHS efforts to secure
religious rights for minorities at
http://www.unitedsikhs.org/PressReleases/PRSRLS-07-06-2011-00.html