Clergy 'treated like fast-food workers'

Clergy are treated no better than staff in fast-food takeaways by the churches that employ them, a trade union claimed yesterday.

The Amicus union, which represents several hundred members of the clergy, is calling on the Church of England and other churches to give clergy basic employment rights rather than insisting they have no "terrestrial employer" becasue they work in the service of God.

Clergy gathered at the Department of Trade and Industry yesterday for a consultation on employment rights while one rector prepared to take his case to Europe.

Roger Lyons, Amicus general secretary, said clergy deserved to be given the same rights as other workers because they gave a valuable service to their communities.

Chris Ball, the union's national secretary, said: "The senior figures from the faith and the church establishments are likely to oppose giving clergy employment rights, just like McDonald's and Burger King might be against an increase in the national minimum wage."

A Church of England spokesman said that parochial clergy were classified as self-employed and church authorities would decide if their status should change once the consultation process ended next month. "The Church is involved in these discussions with the DTI and it would be premature to say anything else at this stage. We have not said 'no' to anything yet," he said.

Meanwhile the Rev Ray Owen, a former Church of England team rector in Stoke-on-Trent, will present the case for giving clergy employment rights at a meeting of the European Parliament today. Mr Owen did not have his contract renewed as team leader after seven years and was told there was no one he could sue.