The short answer: yes, in many cases they can. But as always, the reality is a little more nuanced.
This guide explores the current legal position on veganism in the workplace, what rights are protected under UK employment law, and what employers can do to support a more inclusive and ethical working environment.
Is Veganism a Protected Belief?
The turning point for workplace rights came in 2020 when an employment tribunal held that ethical veganism qualifies as a philosophical belief under the Equality Act 2010. The case was brought by Jordi Casamitjana, who claimed he was unfairly dismissed by the League Against Cruel Sports after raising concerns about its investments in companies involved in animal testing.
The employment judge ruled that ethical veganism is more than a diet; it’s a substantial aspect of a person’s life. As such, it qualifies as a protected belief in the same way as religion or other protected characteristics like age, disability, or sexual orientation.
This landmark case means that ethical vegans in the UK are now entitled to the same protections against discrimination in the workplace as people of other philosophical or religious beliefs.
Ethical Veganism vs Dietary Veganism
It’s important to distinguish between ethical veganism and dietary veganism. While both involve avoiding animal products, only the former is considered a protected belief under law.
- Dietary vegans avoid meat and dairy for health reasons, personal taste, or short-term lifestyle choices.
- Ethical vegans avoid exploiting animals in all areas of life including food, clothing, cosmetics, and more due to beliefs about animal cruelty, human dignity, and environmental concerns.
To qualify for protection under the Equality Act, a belief must meet certain levels of seriousness, cogency, and importance. Ethical veganism ticks those boxes because it affects major aspects of human life, aligns with values in a democratic society, and is worthy of respect.
Vegan Rights at Work: What Employers Should Know
Under the Equality Act 2010, employers are legally obliged to prevent discrimination in the workplace on the basis of protected characteristics, this includes ethical veganism.
Here’s what that means in practice:
1. Protection Against Discrimination or Harassment
Vegan employees must not be treated less favourably because of their beliefs. This includes direct discrimination (e.g. being denied a promotion) and indirect discrimination (e.g. company policies that disproportionately affect vegans). Jokes, mockery or dismissive comments about veganism could also amount to harassment under the law.
2. Reasonable Adjustments
Employers should be prepared to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate vegan beliefs. This could involve offering vegan food at work events, sourcing animal free alternatives to leather chairs, or ensuring uniforms include vegan friendly clothing options that don’t contain wool, silk or leather.
Employers who fail to consider such adjustments could face discrimination claims.
3. Freedom to Express Beliefs
Vegan staff have the right to express their beliefs in a respectful way, whether that’s through conversation, email signatures, or choosing not to participate in activities that conflict with their values. For instance, they may ask not to be involved in company events where meat is the focus or question procurement practices that involve animal testing.
That said, employees must also respect the beliefs of others. The law protects against viewpoint based discrimination, not against all disagreement.
Can Vegans Be Fired for Their Beliefs?
It's unlikely at least not legally. An unfair dismissal claim could arise if a vegan employee is let go because of their beliefs, or for acting on those beliefs in ways that are protected by law.
However, it’s a grey area. Context matters. If someone is dismissed for being disruptive, for example, the employment tribunal would look at whether the dismissal was due to the belief itself or such behaviour. The key question is whether the belief was the real reason for the dismissal or just part of the background.
Employers must tread carefully and document performance-related issues thoroughly to avoid falling foul of the law.
5 Tips to Create a Vegan Friendly Workplace
1) Diversify the office snack selection
If your workplace provides healthy snacks for its employees then ensure to double check the snack selection for vegan friendly options. Traditionally vegan snacks have extended mostly to fruit and nut selections, and whilst those are great, nowadays there are a whole variety of vegan options. Vegan hampers are a really simple way to offer a mix of sweet and savoury snacks to keep your vegan employees powered up throughout the day.
'The Vegan Snack Attack' Hamper Gift Box
2) Look for non-vegan catering options
Throwing a corporate lunch is a great team building exercise, but often it’s quicker and easier for companies to hire a caterer. However quite commonly caterers will provide vegetarian options, and overlook vegan options unless they are specifically told otherwise.
When considering hiring a caterer double check to see if the caterer provides vegan and vegetarian options, or alternatively look for customisable catering options. Customisable options allow you to set up a platter so that employees are able to serve themselves.
That way, non-vegan foods such as cheeses can be left to one side, and vegan employees aren’t nervously picking through sandwiches hoping that there’s a suitable choice.
With more being done for dairy and gluten allergies, setting up customisable catering options also keeps free-from employees safe, too. To find out what free-from foods are, read our blog.
3) Keep the communal kitchen vegan friendly
Communal kitchens are commonplace in most corporate offices, but they can also fill vegan employees with dread and some may avoid using them for fear of contaminated equipment.
To prevent this, and to ensure the kitchen is just as inclusive as everywhere else, there are steps that workplaces can take.
Options include:
- Providing colour-coded equipment that specifies whether a utensil should be used in the preparation of vegan, or non-vegan food.
- Encouraging employees to keep any utensils they use clean can also help to prevent a vegan coming into contact with dairy or meat substances.
- If a workplace has the kitchen space separate food preparation areas could be enacted so that a free-from or vegan employee is doubly reassured that they will not come into contact with non-vegan food substances whilst trying to prepare their lunch.
- Providing separate food storage areas for vegan and non-vegan employees, such as dedicated shelves in the fridge.
4) Being mindful of employees personal preferences
To create a truly inclusive workplace, employees personal preferences should be respected in all aspects of their day to day work.
For vegan employees, that mindfulness could appear through:
- If corporate gifting to your clients and employees is something you already do, make sure to find vegan corporate gifts so nobody is left out. This is also a huge morale boost and really makes your vegan employees valued and part of the team!
- Providing access to vegan friendly work clothing, such as safety boots made of synthetics as opposed to animal leather, or non-leather phone cases.
- If a vegan member of staff is involved in a decision making process regarding non-vegan products, consider giving them the choice as to whether or not to participate in the process.
- Nurturing a positive and respectful atmosphere regarding veganism, vegetarianism, and free-from employees. For example by being mindful of “jokes” which others may find offensive.
5) Plan a Plant-Based Challenge
Finally, one great way to get all your employees working inclusively is to create a team challenge based around plant-based or free-from foods.
Remarkably, research have shown that when employees follow a semi, or even full plant-based diet, they take less sick days, have lower blood pressure levels and generally show higher levels of productivity.
One way to kickstart this initiative is to host a month-long plant based challenge. Requirements could involve switching snacks in a vending machine or kitchen to vegan friendly options, tasking employees with creating vegan friendly meals or bakes after work and scheduling weekly meetings to allow employees to share their successes, challenges and results.
If you need baking ideas, we’ve got a list of the best vegan and gluten-free bakes!
It’s vitally important for all employees to feel heard and included, and it’s likely that by hosting vegan friendly events, peers will be more naturally considerate of those with different diet requirements going forward.
Need a vegan catering service?
At The Goodness Project we deliver delicious healthy vegan snacks and fruit boxes to offices across the UK. What’s more, each one of our Goodness Project Office snack boxes is expertly designed by a nutritionist and filled with a range of snacks, from flapjacks to popcorn to nut mixes, all from leading brands.
So whether you’re a startup or one of the big boys, we want you to think about your team and how you treat them. Make sure you’re keeping them fuelled as best you can. Our boxes will provide proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Helping to keep your team fuller for longer, and reducing sugar cravings. Helping them stay productive, not hangry.
FAQs
1. Is veganism recognised as a protected belief under UK law?
Yes. Ethical veganism has been recognised as a protected belief under the Equality Act 2010, following a landmark employment tribunal in 2020. For a belief to be protected, it must meet certain legal criteria, including being genuinely held and relating to a substantial aspect of human life. The Vegan Society provides helpful guidance on how this applies in daily life and work settings.
2. How can employers support vegan employees at work?
Employers should ensure their diversity policy covers beliefs encompassed by the Equality Act 2010, including ethical veganism. This can include offering vegan options at catered events, sourcing vegan friendly clothing for uniforms, and being mindful of animal products or animal testing in company-provided items. Creating an inclusive culture helps support both legal compliance and staff wellbeing.
3. What should I do if I think I’ve faced discrimination due to my vegan beliefs?
You should raise your concerns with your company’s HR or employment team first. If that doesn’t resolve the issue, you may wish to seek legal advice or contact Acas. In some cases, you may have grounds to bring a discrimination claim before an employment tribunal. Make sure to document all incidents and communications that demonstrate such behaviour.
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