The Court of justice of the European Union (CJEU) has previously ruled on the ban on wearing religious signs in the workplace and on its consistency with discrimination related legislation (c.f. article No. 10112). Now the Court is set to rule on whether a company’s neutral dress code policy can distinguish between ‘discreet’ and ‘conspicuous’ items. According to conclusions handed down by Advocate General Rantos on 25 February, the CJEU should indeed allow companies to make this distinction, on the proviso that such a policy is justified, even if it could lead to indirect discrimination against a religion.
In a previous case (G4S, c.f. article No.10112), the Court established the principle that ‘that the prohibition on wearing an Islamic headscarf, which arises from an internal rule of a private undertaking prohibiting the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign in the workplace, does not constitute direct discrimination based on religion or belief within the meaning of that directive,’ since it indifferently targets any manifestation of such beliefs and treats all workers of a company in an identical manner, by imposing a neutral dress code policy in a general and undifferentiated manner.
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