Arthur’s Story

Arthur was a bus driver in Bradford. He worked for Serco Ltd, who provided services for Bradford City Council. Whilst he was working for Serco, Arthur was elected as a Councillor for the British Nationalist Party (BNP). After six months employment, Arthur was dismissed from work - the reasons were about his membership of the BNP, including the health and safety of his colleagues and passengers and risk the reputation of his employer.

Under the rules in the UK, Arthur couldn't claim unfair dismissal because he had not been working for Serco for more than a year when he was dismissed. Whilst this waived in some cases, it wasn't for discrimination on political grounds. The Court said that the rules in the UK should be compatible with human rights, so they should create further exceptions so that people like Arthur could claim unfair dismissal on the grounds of political opinion or affiliation, when they had worked for their employer for less than one year.

(Redfearn v UK 2012)