It means they will now get protection from discrimination at work.
ADVERTISEMENTEthical vegans secured a big victory this week when a UK judge ruled they are entitled to legal protection from discrimination at work.
Such people go beyond just eating a plant-based diet and extend it other choices they deem harmful to animals, like wearing leather clothes.
They were celebrating on Friday when a judge ruled ethical veganism should be protected as a philosophical belief.
The ruling came in a case involving Jordi Casamitjana, who took his former employer, the League Against Cruel Sports, to an employment tribunal for unfair dismissal.
He alleged that he had been fired after raising concerns about the charity's pension fund investments in companies that test products on animals.
The tribunal judge, Robin Postle, ruled that ethical veganism met the legal criteria for being considered a protected belief under the same section of the Equality Act that prohibits religious discrimination.
Casamitjana's lawyer said that as a result of the ruling, sanctioning workers for ethical veganism will be prohibited in the same way it is illegal to discriminate against workers based on their race, gender, age or sexual orientation.
"``This is a very important ruling for vegans everywhere in the world that will inspire other vegans in other countries that don't have that protection to develop cases that will lead to that protection``," said Casamitjana.
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