THE light shone on the Church of England’s employment practices yesterday as a court denied a vicar the chance to lodge an unfair dismissal claim because he was “not a worker.”

Mark Sharpe said a campaign of harassment — including slashed tyres and a dead dog — had led to his departure as parish priest in Teme Valley South, Worcestershire.

The vicar claimed he was victimised for sounding the bells over financial irregularities in the parish, where he was based for four years from 2005.

He wanted to take Bishop of Worcester John Inge to an employment tribunal for not warning him of the parish’s problems and failing to support him when the harassment began.

But clergymen are classed as self-employed officeholders, meaning they struggle to find protection under the law.

After an initial tribunal ruled against Mr Sharpe, the Employment Appeals Tribunal ruled in 2013 that his working arrangements included all of the key elements of an employment contract, making it possible to construe him as an employee.

But the pesky padre was met with hellfire as bishops refused to back down, taking the case to the Court of Appeal.

Yesterday a panel of three judges ruled that Mr Sharpe was “neither a party to a contract of employment nor a worker” and therefore not entitled to bring a claim.

Mr Sharpe is a member of the faith workers branch of Unite, which said in 2010 that it deals with up to 150 cases a year from aggrieved clergy.

After yesterday’s ruling, a Unite spokesman said: “This judgment has serious ramifications for faith workers in accepting that aspects of the law of the land don’t cover the church.”

Dr Inge said he was “delighted” with the decision and poured doubt on Mr Sharpe’s claims, saying other vicars there had not found the parishioners hostile.

He said vicars “would lose the freedoms which are at the heart of the church’s ministry” if they became employees.

Mr Sharpe had previously brought a successful legal case after he was forced to watch hardcore porn as a ship’s chaplain in the navy.