Earlier this year, the European Court of Justice (ECJ), the “Supreme Court” of the 28-nation European Union (EU), issued much anticipated decisions in two cases testing the bounds of religious expression at work — in both cases, the wearing of Muslim headscarves. The cases stemmed from decisions issued by national courts in Belgium and France.
In the first case, Achbita v. G4S Secure Solutions, the ECJ ruled that the termination of an employee for wearing a Muslim headscarf to work where the employer’s policy prohibited the “visible wearing of political, philosophical or religious signs” did not categorically violate EU nondiscrimination law. In contrast, in Bougnaoui v. Micropole SA, the ECJ ruled against an employer that applied a headscarf ban to an employee in response to a customer’s complaints.
The ECJ’s rulings in these two cases were the first by that court to address the rights of Muslim women in the EU to wear headscarves at work for religious reasons. The two rulings highlight the similarities (and distinctions) between current EU and U.S. laws governing religious discrimination in the workplace, and in particular as to its application to the wearing of headscarves.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.