Companies may ban Muslim employees from wearing a headscarf under certain conditions, the European Union’s top court said on Thursday in a ruling on two cases brought by women in Germany who were suspended from their jobs for wearing one.
The issue of the hijab has caused controversy across Europe for years and underlined sharp differences over integrating Muslims.
Both Muslim women – a special-needs carer at a childcare centre in Hamburg run by a charitable association, and a cashier at the Mueller drugstore chain brought the cases to court.
They were told that this was not allowed, and were at different points either suspended, told to come to work without it or put on a different job, court documents show.
The EU court had to decide in both cases whether headscarf bans at work represented a violation of the freedom of religion or were allowed as part of the freedom to conduct a business and the wish to project an image of neutrality to customers.
Its response was that such bans were possible if justified by an employer’s need to present a neutral image.
“A prohibition on wearing any visible form of expression of political, philosophical or religious beliefs in the workplace may be justified by the employer’s need to present a neutral image towards customers or to prevent social disputes,” the court said.
In both cases, it will now be up to national courts to have the final say on whether there was any discrimination.
The EU court already ruled in 2017 that companies may ban staff from wearing Islamic headscarves and other visible religious symbols under certain conditions, sparking a backlash among faith groups.
More than 5 million Muslims live in Germany, making them the largest religious minority group there.
