European court allows employers to ban religious clothing

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Businesses in EU countries may ban employees from wearing religious symbols, including headscarves, and articles revealing political beliefs, the bloc’s highest court has ruled. The ban was justified, said the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg, by an employer's need to present a neutral image and backed up previous rulings. However, the court also said in its judgment on Thursday that national courts in the bloc’s 27 members should consider whether the ban corresponded to a “genuine need” on the part of the employer. National courts should also appraise the rights and interests of the employee, including by taking into account state legislation on freedom of religion, it said. The decision was made in a ruling on two cases brought by women in Germany who had been suspended from their jobs for wearing one. In the court cases, both Muslim women – a special-needs carer at a childcare centre in Hamburg run by a charitable association, and a cashier at a pharmacy chain – did not wear headscarves when they started in their jobs, but decided to do so years later after returning from parental leave. They were told that this was not allowed, and were at different points either suspended, asked to come to work without the headscarves, or were given different tasks, court documents showed. The EU court looked at whet