EU court ruled: – Employers can ban headscarves without exception

The Court of Justice effectively ruled on the issue of wearing religious symbols in the workplace in 2017. Now he has confirmed his case law, as first reported by “Die Presse”. The reason for asking the question again was a case in the Belgian municipality of Ans.

She had banned a Muslim employee from wearing a headscarf at work. The woman worked as an office manager, largely without customer contact. The community therefore tightened its labor rules: workers were prohibited from wearing any form of conspicuous signs of ideological or religious beliefs, regardless of whether they were on office duty or not.

Woman sued for discrimination
The affected person felt that her religious freedom was being restricted and therefore filed a lawsuit with the Liège labor court. This ended up at the Court of Justice, which had to decide whether the rules of the municipality of Ans were in accordance with EU law.

Luxembourg’s clear answer was no. A policy of ‘strict neutrality’, such as that pursued by the Belgian community to prevent followers of religions from exerting pressure on people of a different faith or non-belief, is legal and objectively justified. This also means that the employer must completely prohibit the wearing of visible religious symbols during working hours and in the workplace.

Must be applied “systematically”.
The court emphasized that the rule must apply “in a coherent and systematic manner” to all religions and beliefs. Anyone who wants to ban Islamic headscarves must also ban the Jewish yarmulke and clearly visible Christian crosses.