Religion and Belief Guidance for Managers - July 2026
In this section
- 1. Introduction
- 2. The Council’s Approach
- 3. Establishing the Religion or Belief is Genuine
- 4. Steps Managers Should Take to Deal with a Request
- 5. Questions to Ask to Ensure the Employees Approach to a Religion or Belief Request is Justified
- 6. Promoting a Particular Religion or Belief when at Work?
3. Establishing the Religion or Belief is Genuine
A protected belief should be more than an opinion or a viewpoint. It should be serious, genuinely and sincerely held, and worthy of respect in a democratic society. It should also be compatible with human dignity and should not conflict with the fundamental rights of others. The law protects adherents to all the generally recognised religions, as well as druids and pagans, for example. It also protects people without any religion or belief, including humanists and atheists.
Managers are not expected to be experts in religion or belief issues and should not spend too much time or expense examining the motivation or genuineness of a particular employee's religion or belief. In most cases, this will be easily identified.
Managers should only question a belief in the most exceptional cases where, for example, it is very obscure, appears to be objectively unreasonable, or the sincerity of the belief of an employee is genuinely in doubt. In such situations requests can be declined if it can reasonably be concluded that the belief is not sincere.
Most requests are likely to cover:
Manifestation of belief: This covers clothing, appearance and jewellery with religion or belief meaning. Examples include wearing headscarves, turbans, kippahs (skull caps) and modest dress, having a beard, and wearing a cross, crucifix, kara (a Sikh steel bracelet) or Star of David.
Time off work for religion or belief reasons: This covers requests for time off work for religion or belief reasons on a regular basis, such as to avoid working on Sundays (for Christians) or to allow prayers to be said on Fridays (for Muslims). It also covers time off work for infrequent occasions, such as religion or belief festivals or one-off requests, such as time off work for pilgrimages.
Adapting work duties: Managers may be asked to adapt work duties to allow employees to avoid contact with alcohol and/or meat at work for religion or belief reasons.
Managers are not required to comply with these requests on all occasions but as discussed below, they should be considered seriously.