LONDON, Nov 3 (Reuters Life!) - A British court has granted a man the right to take his former employer to task at an employment tribunal on the grounds he was unfairly dismissed because of his views on climate change.

Tim Nicholson from Oxford in southern England was let go from his job in 2008 as head of sustainability for British property firm Grainger Plc, the BBC reported on Tuesday.

The 42-year-old said his beliefs had contributed to his dismissal and in March a judge ruled that he could use employment equality laws to claim it was unfair.

The company appealed against this as it believed his views were political, but lost.

After the hearing, Nicholson said he was delighted by the judgement for himself and other people who may feel they are discriminated against because of their views on climate change.

“Essentially what the judgment says is that a belief in man-made climate change and the alleged resulting moral imperative is capable of being a philosophical belief and is therefore protected by the 2003 religion or belief regulations,” the BBC quoted Nicholson’s solicitor Shah Qureshi as saying.

Nicholson was given permission in March to make his claim under the Employment Equality (Religion and Belief) Regulations 2003 that covers “any religion, religious belief, or philosophical belief.”

But the ruling was challenged by Grainger, Britain’s biggest residential landlord, on the grounds that green views were not the same as religious or philosophical beliefs.

Nicholson, who said his opinions affect his whole lifestyle, claimed his views had put him at odds with other senior staff at Grainger and had been ignored by managers.

He said he had tried to set up a carbon management system for the company, but was unable to work out its carbon footprint because staff had refused to give him the necessary data.

Nicholson also accused the chief executive, Rupert Dickinson, of showing “contempt” for his concerns and claimed he once flew a member of staff to Ireland to deliver his Blackberry which he had left in London.

“This decision merely confirms that views on the importance of environmental protection are capable of amounting to a philosophical belief,” said Grainger corporate affairs director Dave Butler.

“Grainger absolutely maintains, as it has done from the very outset of these proceedings, that Mr Nicholson’s redundancy was driven solely by the operational needs of the company during a period of extraordinary market turbulence, which also required other structural changes to be made within the company.

“Grainger rejects outright any suggestion that there was any other motivation relating to Mr Nicholson’s beliefs or otherwise.”