Judgment of the ECJ: ban on headscarves in the workplace can be justified

A ban on wearing religious symbols such as the headscarf in the workplace may be justified under certain circumstances.

However, the employer must prove that without such a policy of neutrality, his entrepreneurial freedom would be impaired, said the European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Thursday in Luxembourg.

The cases treated involved two Muslim women from Germany.

(Refs. C-341/19 and C-804/18).

One of the women works as a cashier in a drugstore, the other as a curative educator in a daycare center. Since they were banned from wearing the Islamic headscarf at work, they went to German courts. They asked the ECJ to interpret EU law.