Les motifs de protection de la religion ou des convictions
When we come to the other grounds of discrimination, religion or belief, here we can say that the prohibition of discrimination due to religion or belief is covered by Directive 2000/78/EC, which means it is only applicable to employment related situations; being employed in a firm, questions of recruitment, selection, access to certain positions, possibility to participate in training but also when there are some firms that provide some counselling services concerning the employment market they should also not discriminate due to religion or belief. Also membership in trade unions in professional organisations cannot be restricted because of religion or belief.
With respect to the notion religion or belief also here the Directive is quite open in categorising different situations as a ground for discrimination. We shouldn’t think here that only some established religion, that only some registered churches come under the umbrella of this notion. Belief may also be of non-religious character. I can believe in certain ideas and can be discriminated because of that. I can be atheist and be discriminated because of my atheism. Once again this notion is pretty broad but one should remember that the scope of applicability is restricted here only to those employment and professional related circumstances. According to the different reports prepared by the European Commission on discrimination due to religion or belief in the place of employment happens usually in the context of some health and safety regulations, in the context of some requirements established by employers. For example, such polices as dress codes at firms usually come into conflict with the freedom of religion because there might be a problem with ladies who want to wear headscarf or people who want to place their religious symbols at the forefront of their clothes.
We can also have situations when religion or belief comes into conflict with, for example, religious holidays and the general operation of the company or of a certain business. One of leading cases, dating back to the 70s, Prais v Council (C-130/75) concerned the organisation of the examination for the position of the translator in the Council of the European Union, at that moment when there was the start of the Pentecost and Miss Prais could not participate in this completion because she could not on this particular date travel or go outside of her home. So this case illustrates what kind of conflicts may appear between on the one hand freedom of religion, on the other hand some general requirement of the employer. That sometimes the religion needs certain accommodation by the employer and vice versa that sometimes the requirements of the employer might become more important than some individual religious circumstances.
Currently there are very interesting cases pending before the European Court of Human Rights concerning this specific aspect. These cases emerged from the judgements given by different United Kingdom courts and the concerning such issues like whether the person who is of catholic religion may be exempted from participating in ceremonies awarding the civil registered partnership to same sex couples. There was one civil statues officer who did not want to participate in such ceremonies because of his belief in God. Or they may concern such situations whether someone who is employed in some family counselling company should be requested to advice bisexual, gay or lesbian couples in their family or private life problems. We have also cases before the Strasbourg Court concerning whether the employee of British Airways should be compelled not to show their crucifix. Whether any religious symbols should be hidden under their clothes or whether this crucifix could be placed somewhere on the forefront of our clothes. Such issues appear in the domestic discourse, in the domestic discussions, domestic courts and are later on the subject of discussions by international courts and on the basis of those individual conflicts which are sometimes very important to some people, to people who have really strong belief in certain ideas or in certain religions all those problems result in shaping the modern case law cornering the intersection between religion and the place of employment.