David Davies, the Conservative M.P. for Monmouth, today called on British Airways to allow Christian staff members to wear crucifixes as a symbol of their faith. This follows reports that officials have prevented employees from exhibiting items of Christian iconography while allowing followers of other religions to display various religious items openly.
Speaking from Westminster today, David said, “It is simply unacceptable that, while on the one hand Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and other religious adherents are allowed to demonstrate their faiths openly, on the other Christians are denied the same rights. The fact that British Airways refuses to treat all its employees equally smacks of discrimination and in this day and age simply cannot be tolerated.
“I have tabled an Early Day Motion which calls on B.A. to desist with any discriminatory policies immediately and, as expected, it has been popular with M.P.s across the political divides. I trust that B.A. will take the level of public and political outcry on board and drastically rethink their policies on this matter.
“It is disturbing enough to think that Christian festivals such as Christmas and Easter are under threat by the fascistic “politically-correct” lobby without thinking that respectable companies such as B.A. are targeting Christianity arbitrarily. It is absolutely imperative that examples are made of situations such as this so that our traditions of freedom of expression are not undermined by stealth and all people are treated as equals.”
EDM 2771 reads: “…this House regrets the fact that, while British Airways (BA) has allowed employees who are adherents to different faiths to express their beliefs in the form of items of clothing and jewellery, it has denied Christian employees the right to wear crucifixes about their person; and calls on BA to abandon this apparent discrimination towards its Christian workforce and ensure that members of all faiths are treated equally in the future”. The EDM currently has thirty five signatures attached.