Source: https://www.gvzh.com.mt/malta-news/ban-islamic-headscarves-workplace-position-european-court-justice/
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Ban of Islamic Scarves at the Workplace: The Position of the European Court of Justice
Home | News | Ban of Islamic headscarves at the workplace: the position of the European Court of Justice
Employment and Industrial Relations Law | May 11, 2017
The European Court of Justice (the “ECJ”) has recently ruled on the case C-157/15 related to Ms. Samira Achbita, a receptionist working for the company G4S Secure Solutions NV.
The CJEU declared that the principle of equal treatment means that there is to be no direct nor indirect discrimination on the grounds (inter alia) of religion. Since the Council Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment and Occupation 2000/78/EC (the “Directive”), does not include a definition of religion, the CJEU referred to the European Convention on Human Rights, and declared that the concept of religion must be interpreted as both the fact of having religious belief, as well as the freedom to manifest that belief in public.
Therefore, she challenged this before the French Courts, and the French Court of Cassation referred the question whether the willingness of an employer to take a customer’s complaint not to have services provided by a worker wearing an Islamic headscarf into account, constituted a genuine and determining occupational requirement within the meaning of the Directive.
The CJEU queried whether the conditions of the above case involving Ms. Achbita were satisfied. The CJEU declared that if not, it would be necessary to enquire whether the willingness of the employer to take account of a customer’s wish to no longer have the services of the employer provided by a worker who wears an Islamic headscarf is justified for the purposes of article 4(1) of the Directive. This article provides that a difference in treatment does not constitute discrimination where by reason of the nature of the particular occupational activities concerned or of the context in which they are carried out, the characteristic at issue constitutes a genuine and determining occupational requirement, provided that the objective is legitimate and the requirement is proportionate.
The CJEU pointed out that this is only true of very few situations, and it definitely does not cover subjective considerations, such as the employer’s willingness to take account of the particular wishes of a customer. Therefore, the CJEU concluded that the willingness of an employer to take account of the wishes of a customer to no longer have services provided by a worker wearing an Islamic headscarf could not be considered to be a genuine and determining occupational requirement within the meaning of the Directive.