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Headscarf dispute – companies are allowed to ban the wearing of religious symbols

According to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), a company may prohibit the visible wearing of religious, ideological or spiritual symbols under certain conditions.

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Headscarf dispute – companies are allowed to ban the wearing of religious symbols

According to a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), a company may prohibit the visible wearing of religious, ideological or spiritual symbols under certain conditions. Such a prohibition is permissible if this rule applies to all workers.

According to the judgment announced in Luxembourg on Thursday, such a rule is not discriminatory as long as it is applied in a general and indiscriminate manner. (C-344/20) "General bans on individual religious symbols in the workplace are and will remain prohibited," stressed the Federal Government's Anti-Discrimination Commissioner, Ferda Ataman, after the verdict.

Companies that want to ban religious symbols such as crosses, kippahs or headscarves would have to face high hurdles and ultimately ban everything religious, "from the cross to the headscarf to the Christmas party," said Ataman and suggested handling it differently. Religious diversity in the workplace is a lived reality in Germany. "I'm glad that many companies in Germany see it the same way - and don't see diversity as a problem, but as an asset," said the head of the federal anti-discrimination agency.

A Muslim woman wearing the Islamic headscarf had reported discrimination to the Brussels labor court. The woman had applied for an internship and was not accepted because she refused to take off her headscarf. A little later she applied again and suggested wearing a different hat. The management refused on the grounds that in principle no headgear is allowed in the business premises, be it a hat, a cap or a headscarf.

The Court of Justice denied direct discrimination as long as the prohibition applies generally and without discrimination. However, an apparently neutral rule could turn out to be indirect discrimination if, in practice, people of a particular religion or belief were disadvantaged. It is up to the Brussels labor court to examine this.

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