The threats are extremely violent. The manager of a Geox store in Strasbourg refused to work for a temporary worker because of the Islamic veil which she refused to remove. Filmed by the person concerned, the sequence was viewed more than a million times on Tik Tok and X, triggering a flood of insults.
The CCIE, Collective against Islamophobia in Europe, formerly CCIF (Collective against Islamophobia) which was dissolved in France after the assassination of Samuel Paty in Conflans Sainte-Honorine, even denounced “
unacceptable discrimination”. ..) Contact Geox to express your disapproval!”
.
“On my contract, it is not written that I must not wear the veil,”
also insists in the video that she films herself the young veiled woman, who also describes herself in her TikTok biography as a
“inspiring Muslim woman”
who
“embraces the hijab.”
Can an employer prohibit the wearing of the veil in his company without contravening the law which prevents all discrimination? According to French law, the private employer has the right to impose a dress code or to prohibit the wearing of certain clothing, particularly in the commercial sector, but under certain very specific conditions.
“Since the law of August 8, 2016 on labor, the internal regulations (of a company) may contain a neutrality clause, in particular with regard to the expression of religious beliefs, which may have consequences on the rules of dress”
, may - we read in the
“
practical guide to religion in private companies
”
, published by the Ministry of Labor.
“A policy of neutrality towards customers can justify the prohibition of wearing religious outfits or symbols provided that it concerns both religious, political and philosophical symbols (and) only applies to employees in contact with customers
.
Above all, this policy of neutrality must be explicitly mentioned in internal regulations or an internal memo, and must be justified by reasons linked to the nature of the task and proportionate to the desired goal or for positions in contact with customers.
European case law
In addition to this law, there are various case laws emerging in recent years since the subject has already been the subject of a “preliminary question” to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), whose national courts have inhale directly.
A judgment handed down in October 2022 by the CJEU in fact decided that the internal regulations of a company made it possible to prohibit its employees from expressing their religious beliefs. The Court was seized in the context of a case between a Belgian manager of social housing and an internship candidate who had indicated that she did not want to apply the
company's
“neutrality policy” .
“The rule of a company prohibiting the visible wearing of religious, philosophical or spiritual symbols does not constitute direct discrimination if it is applied generally to all workers
,” replied the CJEU adding that the regulation must of course be applied
“in a general and undifferentiated manner”
. The European court had already issued a decision to this effect in 2021 affirming that the
“prohibition on the wearing of any visible expression of political, philosophical or religious convictions”
could be justified by the need to project
“an image of neutrality towards of customers”
.
The Advocate General of the CJEU also considered, during this case, that
“if the ban on the wearing, in the workplace, of any visible sign of political, philosophical or religious beliefs is admissible, the employer is also free, within the framework of its freedom of enterprise, to prohibit only the wearing of large, ostentatious signs
. Namely, accept medals and not the Islamic headscarf, which
“does not constitute a small religious sign”
. The CJEU, however, did not accept this specific conclusion.