Freedom of Religion at Work in EU Migration Law and Policy

Abstract

In light of recent European Court of Human Rights judgments concerning religious freedom at work, this article discusses the relationship between the growth of religious diversity and immigration within secular European trends. In the first part, the study deals with the extent of EU policy and law to protect the right to religious freedom of immigrants in terms of non-discrimination in employment, as a way of ensuring their social inclusion. Secondly, the article analyses the scope of Directive 2000/78 and especially the ECtHR case law, since in the past ten years cases under Article 9 ECHR – freedom of religion – have been constantly growing. A remarkable case is Eweida (2013), which relates to a conflict between religious symbols and work requirements. It supposes a shift in the doctrine of the Court towards the establishment of a reasonable accommodation requirement or a fully justified reason of labour demands, by which any possible limitation of religious freedom of an employee must be justified.