A Member State may authorise, as part of its policy of neutrality, the wearing of small religious symbols, which do not include the Islamic headscarf, said the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Athanasios Rantos, in his Opinion delivered on Thursday 25 February (Case C-804/18).
The Court was asked to analyse the conformity of two undertakings’ regulations prohibiting their employees from wearing visible signs of political, philosophical and religious beliefs with the Directive (2000/78) on equal treatment in employment and occupation.
In the first case, a specialist educator at the German association WABE contested her suspension for refusing to remove her Islamic headscarf (Case C-804/18). In the second case, a cashier at the MH Müller Handels pharmacy chain challenged her employer’s request to report to her workplace without any ostentatious sign of broad political, philosophical or religious convictions.
Relying on European case law (cases C-157/15 - see EUROPE 11745/12 and C-188/15 - see EUROPE 11593/22), Mr Rantos considers that the prohibition of the wearing of any visible sign of political, philosophical or religious beliefs in the workplace, which derives from an internal rule of a private undertaking, does not constitute direct discrimination against workers on grounds of religion or belief.
The company’s internal rule must be applied consistently and systematically.
The Advocate General also questions whether the visible wearing of small signs is appropriate in the workplace. In this respect, he considers that an employer’s policy of neutrality is compatible with the wearing, by its employees, of religious signs, visible or not, but small, and discreet, which are not noticeable at first glance.
According to Mr Rantos, it is not for the Court to define the term “small”, since the context in which the sign is worn plays a role. Nevertheless, he stresses, the Islamic headscarf is not a small religious sign.
See the conclusions: http://bit.ly/3qVYlwC (Original version in French by Mathieu Bion)