Public Servants and Signs of Conviction: A Tale of Double Standards

In Case C-148/22, OP v Commune d'Ans, 1 the Court of Justice (ECJ) has been called upon for the first time to consider the issue of a public body prohibiting its employees from visibly wearing religious signs in the workplace.The legal question the Court had to address was whether the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief, as laid down in the Employment Equality Directive, 2 makes it unlawful for a public employer to establish such a ban.It was written in the stars that, one day, the ECJ would have to rule on this sensitive question.Five cases in which a private employer dismissed, or refused to hire, a female Muslim employee because she insisted on wearing her headscarf