Firms Can Ban Workers From Wearing Headscarves And Other Religious Symbols Under Eu Ruling

In its first ruling on headscarves at work, the European Court of Justice backed bans on religious symbols - but only if they cover all religions equally
Firms can ban workers from wearing religious symbols under a landmark ruling by the European Union's top court.

The European Court of Justice gave its verdict today in the cases of two women who were dismissed for refusing to stop wearing Islamic headscarves.

In its first ruling on headscarves at work, the court said a ban on religious symbols was justified - but only if it covered all religions equally.

However, the case arose directly because of the treatment of women wearing Islamic dress, and comes as a far-right party attempts to make gains in tomorrow's Dutch elections.
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Freedom Party leader Geert Wilders once called for a tax on the traditional dress, causing outrage by dubbing it the "head rag". Controversial bans on Islamic dress have also been made in France.
Today's verdict took its first step in 2003 thanks to Samira Achbita, a Muslim woman who was working as a receptionist for G4S in Belgium.

She was told not to wear a traditional headscarf because of a ban on "visible signs of political, philosophical or religious beliefs".

She refused to stop wearing the headscarf and took her case to a court in Belgium after she was dismissed in 2006.

But the Court of Justice today said the rule was justified - because it was about all political and religious symbols, not just Islam.

"The Court of Justice finds that G4S’s internal rule refers to the wearing of visible signs of political, philosophical or religious beliefs and therefore covers any manifestation of such beliefs without distinction," the ruling said.

"The rule thus treats all employees of the undertaking in the same way, notably by requiring them, generally and without any differentiation, to dress neutrally.
It is not evident from the material in the file available to the Court that that internal rule was applied differently to Ms Achbita as compared to other G4S employees.

"Accordingly, such an internal rule does not introduce a difference of treatment that is directly based on religion or belief, for the purposes of the directive."

The ruling went on that a rule like G4S's did not constitute "direct discrimination".

But it went less far in a second case, that of a French woman who was told her headscarf might "pose a problem" with some customers.

The ruling said that without a formal rule covering all religious symbols, simply wanting to "take account of the wishes of a customer" was not enough to ban headscarves.

It "cannot be considered an occupational requirement that could rule out discrimination," the ruling said.

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