Advocate general Kokott delivered an opinion on 31 May inviting the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) to rule that banning the wearing of the headscarf in the workplace can be justified on the basis of a company’s religious and ideological neutrality. This is the first case pitting the wearing of the headscarf against Directive 2000/78 that addresses equal treatment as regards employment and work. The French Court of Cassation has also brought a case for a preliminary ruling on the subject, where the Court requested the CJEU to determine if the wishes of an IT company’s client who no longer wanted to be receive services from a woman wearing a headscarf could be taken as an essential decisive business requirement that would then permit banning the wearing of such a headscarf.
In this 31 May case brought before the CJEU, a female receptionist was laid off following her refusal to stop wearing her headscarf, in spite of a company regulation (G4S) banning the wearing of any visible signs of their political, philosophical or religious beliefs. The employee in question brought the case to the Belgian courts that then turned to the CJEU to interpret directive 2000/78 that prohibits all discrimination based on religious belief at the workplace.
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