This UK case from the Employment Appeal Tribunal (the equivalent of the Labour Court in Ireland) will be of particular interest to those readers who specialise in employment equality matters, given its focus on potential indirect discrimination claimed by an employee who wished time off at a specific time each year to attend religious festivals in his homeland.

The claimant is a practising Roman Catholic from Sardinia in Italy.  He lives in the UK with his wife and family, but each August he and his two brothers return to the area of Sardinia where their mother continues to live in order to be together and to attend religious festivals.

He is entitled to 38 days’ holiday per year (including