SHAFAQNA- Employers can impose a general workplace ban on religious symbols, including headscarves, as long as they don’t single out one belief over another, the European Union’s top court said.
Companies that decide to impose such bans can’t differentiate between religions or beliefs, or they risk violating EU equality law, the EU Court of Justice said in a ruling last Thursday.
An employer who prohibits workers “from manifesting, through words, through clothing, or in any other way, their religious or philosophical beliefs, whatever those beliefs may be, does not constitute” direct discrimination.
The ruling follows on from a similar judgment last year saying that Islamic headscarves in the workplace can be banned provided such curbs are vital to show neutrality in the workplace and don’t single out specific beliefs.
Source: bloomberg
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