Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-11-07-Speech-4-032"
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"en.20021107.2.4-032"2
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"Mr President, on behalf of the Socialist Group and as a member of the Petitions Committee I welcome both the report from the Earl of Stockton and the opinion from the Employment and Social Affairs Committee drafted by Mrs Attwooll.
The Reverend Owen is actually in the gallery today listening to this debate. His case is very simple. He was employed as a team rector in Stoke-on-Trent for a number of years. There was a secretive and flawed review of his work in the post and a decision was made at a meeting, without proper notice, that he was to be sacked. He was given no reasons for his dismissal. Like any employee he believed he had the right to an independent appeal against this casual ending of 30 years' work with the Church and a threat to his tied accommodation. Without a post in the Church he would be evicted from his family home.
To cut a long story short, he was refused access to an industrial tribunal in the United Kingdom because of a 1911 judgment that members of the clergy have no terrestrial employer, that is, he is employed by God, although God does not sign his stipend cheques at the end of the month. However, employment legislation and the world have moved on since 1911. For example, women even have the right to vote, and, in the United Kingdom, female teachers no longer have to resign on getting married. Even in the EU, we have legislation that should apply in this case. No longer when you join the Church should have you have to leave your basic civil rights at the door. The Employment and Social Affairs Committee backs that argument, the Petitions Committee backs that argument. We believe that clergy throughout Europe should have the same employment rights as millions of other workers, the same rights as they enjoy already in Denmark, and in the United Kingdom if they happen to be hospital or prison chaplains. So there is even an anomaly within the United Kingdom.
We hope the UK Government and the Commission will look again at this matter. I still believe that the directives have not been properly implemented in UK law. The Reverend Owen seems to meet all the criteria for being an employee. That the Reverend Owen has been badly treated by the Church of England seems very clear, and we hope that on the basis of this particular case, which is illustrative of a much more general problem affecting hundreds of clergy in the United Kingdom every year, the Commission will press the UK Government to close the loophole for future cases.
In the United Kingdom, there are 30 000 clergy treated in this feudal manner: more than the number of those employed in the mining industry. Across Europe, close to a quarter of a million clergy, encompassing all faiths and religions, are employed and at the moment have some doubts as whether they are covered by this legislation.
Finally, while we do not expect miracles, we ask that the Church authorities in the UK practise some of the Christian charity they preach in this particular case."@en1
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