Was this whistleblower’s sacking discrimination?
On paper, whistleblowers are often legally protected, but in practice, well, that’s a different story. Whistleblowers usually end up ruined. It takes guts to take a stand and also often sacrifice.
So a different approach is taken in this case. I shall be following this (to the extent that I can).
Sacked vegan claims discrimination:
Angelina Souren : 🇳🇱 🇺🇸 🇬🇧 Critical thinker / rights advocate and scientific researcher. 
He isn’t even vegan he’s plant-based and those are very different
Thanks for adding that info. While I am not sure that they are “very” different, it is my understanding that “vegan” also rules out the role of for example bees whereas “plant-based” does not. Is that correct?
I doubt that it will make a difference for the legal implications, however, although your response may be illustrative!
We’ll have to see how this court case turns out.
What do you think? Did he do the right thing?
Veganism is an ethical philosophical position and Plant-Based is a diet that doesn’t necessarily exclude animal products and has no ties to ethics or philosophy at all.
I think he was right for exposing them however he should have left the company before doing it. Either way it’s not like he made any profound global change and he’s now out of a job so I see what he did as pointless. Companies in capitalistic societies don’t operate off ethics, they operate off consumer demand. So perhaps in that regard he swatted away a client/donor or two from the company, but big whoop, because they’re the ones with the money to cover it up and he’s just an unemployed (and probably unemployable now) schmuck.
Well, most people are not that practical, or calculating. Or maybe his actions are calling even more attention to these unethical investments than they would have done if he had first quit, found a new job and then revealed the facts about those investments at his former employment.
It will be interesting to see how this case develops, legally. There have also been cases in which pastafarians claimed the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster as their religion. Sometimes, they succeed, sometimes they don’t. Off the top of my head, one case was rejected in the Netherlands some time ago, but I don’t recall the circumstances and it may not even have been in front of a court or tribunal.
And this is why becoming a whistleblower after you leave an organization can be unethical too: It can damage your new employer’s reputation.
Update:
https://www.slatergordon.co.uk/media-centre/blog/2019/12/ethical-veganism/
Has links to redacted trial bundle, among other things.
The tribunal has agreed with the Claimant that ethical veganism is a belief:
https://news.sky.com/story/ethical-veganism-is-a-philosophical-belief-tribunal-says-11900304