In his opinion delivered on Thursday 4 May at the Court of Justice of the European Union (Case C-148/22), Advocate General Anthony Collins considers that a public body may prohibit the wearing of any visible sign of political, religious or philosophical belief in the workplace, provided that this rule applies to everyone.
The Belgian municipal authority of Ans banned one of its female employees from wearing the Islamic headscarf at work. The employee considered that this infringed her freedom of religion and brought the matter before the Labour Court of Liège. In the meantime, the municipality amended its rules to impose strict neutrality on its staff.
The Belgian court then considered whether such a rule complies with the ‘anti-discrimination’ directive in the field of employment, insofar as it also prohibits the wearing of ostentatious religious symbols by employees who are not in contact with the public.
While the Directive does apply to the Ans municipality, Mr Collins considers that such a prohibition does not constitute direct discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief if it is applied in a general and undifferentiated manner.
However, he points out that in practice the regulation may affect some categories of people more than others. Nevertheless, he considers that a difference in treatment might not be considered indirect discrimination if it is “objectively justified by a legitimate aim and if the means employed to achieve that aim [are] appropriate and necessary”. In absolute terms, he notes, the desire to pursue a policy of neutrality within a public body is likely to be considered legitimate.
However, Mr Collins states that it is up to the Liège court to decide on the legitimacy of Ans’ rule. He considers that the court must, on the one hand, take into account the absence of an exclusive neutrality obligation for municipal employees in Belgium and, on the other hand, assess whether the municipality’s choice is based on factual elements.
Read the conclusions: https://aeur.eu/f/6ph (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)