Worker Claims Religious Discrimination for Believing in Psychics

The Telegraph reports that Alan Power, a police trainer and member of a Spiritualist church for 30 years, argues that his belief in the power of mediums should be placed on a par with more mainstream religious and philosophical convictions. He claims that Greater Manchester Police broke the law by dismissing him for believing that mediums should be consulted in criminal investigations.

Power has already secured a legal ruling that his principles are covered by laws designed to prevent religious discrimination in the workplace, and is now seeking to prove that they were the reason for his dismissal, according to the news report. In an initial judgment, a tribunal judge said that the case had merit because Power’s Spiritualist views “have sufficient cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance” to be covered by the Employment Equality (Religion or Belief) Regulations 2003.

The police department is expected to argue that the initial ruling was not justified, and that Power did not initially claim that his belief in the usefulness of psychics to police investigations amounted to a religious conviction.