On 13 July, in the conclusions delivered concerning a French case, the Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston invited the ECJ to rule that the ban by an employer on its employee from wearing an Islamic headscarf constituted unlawful discrimination and could only be justified under certain restricted circumstances (occupational health and safety issues for example). This is not the case here where the ban corresponded to a client’s request not to receive the IT consultancy company’s services from women wearing headscarves. The advocate general did not see the employer’s business interest as being sufficient grounds for this type of discrimination.
A French affair. A female employee in the IT consultancy company was sacked for having worn a hijab and for refusing to remove it when she would be meeting the client or working at the client’s premises at a later date. The client in question had asked not to receive the company’s services from an employee wearing a headscarf. Both of France’s primary legal instances upheld the employment termination. The Court of Cassation decided to postpone its ruling and asked the ECJ to determine if the IT company’s client’s wish not to receive services from professionals wearing headscarves constituted an essential determining professional requirement that justified such a ban and the sacking of the employee as a result of violating the ban.
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