Religion, Equality and Employment in Europe

Katayoun Alidadi is an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at Bryant University (Smithfield, RI, USA) and a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle, Germany). Her work focuses on human rights, conflict of laws, employment law and the intersections of law and religion. She was awarded the 2013 Ius Commune Prize for her research on reasonable accommodation for religion and belief. Katayoun holds a PhD in law from the KULeuven (Leuven, Belgium) and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School (Cambridge, MA, USA).

This book offers a comprehensive exploration of a traditionally neglected theme which is of great practical significance for the prosperous development of multi-religious societies. Alidadi presents an innovative combination of findings from different normative and empirical disciplines, particularly law and sociology, and offers critical contributions to central debates within legal theory, including on the meaning of State neutrality vis-à-vis religion, secularity, formal and substantive equality, diversity and multiculturalism …a 'must' for everyone in the future dealing with issues of religious freedom, tolerance or discrimination in the workplace.

• Introduction: Religion and Employment in Europe. Thick Identities Colliding with Muscular Liberalism I. The Turn Towards Religion and Accommodation II. Scope of Analysis and Overview III. Reasonable Accommodation: Typology, Hard Cases, Substantive Equality and Decommodification IV. Liberalism, Thick Identities and Coping Mechanisms PART I. Freedom of Religion out of its Comfort Zone. Religion in the Workplace and Europe’s Two Supranational CourtsManoeuvring a Multi-layered Fundamental Rights Architecture 1. Religion or Belief in the Workplace under the Human Rights Framework I. Human Rights, Religious Freedom and Diversity II. The European Convention on Human Rights and the ECtHR 2. The EU and Religion or Belief in the Workplace: From the Rapid Rise of EU Non-Discrimination Law to the Limits of Market-Rationalised Equality Law I. Introduction: The EU ‘Fundamental Rights Revolution’ II. The CJEU and Religious Accommodations in the Workplace PART II. Religion or Belief in the Belgian, Dutch and British Private Sector Workplace: Between Assimilation Demands and Reasonable AccommodationEuropean Country Studies: The Importance of Contextualisation 3. The (Non-)Accommodation of Religious Dress in the European Workplace I. Introduction II. Religious Dress in the Employment Context in Belgium: Judgment-Proof Restrictive Employer Practices III. Accommodation of Religious Dress in the Dutch Workplace: Illustrating the Divergent General and Special Effects of Anti-Discrimination Law IV. Accommodating Religiously Distinct Dress in the British Workplace: Progressive Case Law and‘Flexible Tolerance’ on the Ground V. Comparison: Corporate Neutrality Policies and the Uneven Rooting of Reasonable Accommodation 4. Conflicting Religion-Worktime Demands: Is Europe Keeping Up with the Times? I. Introduction: Intersection of Human Rights and Working Time Regulation II. Belgian Case Law on Religion-Worktime Conflicts III. Dutch Case Law on Religion-Worktime Conflicts IV. British Case Law on Religion-Worktime ConflictsV. Conclusion 5. Religious Affiliation Discrimination and Miscellaneous Accommodation I. Introduction II. Religious Affiliation Discrimination: The Thin Heart of the Matter? III. Negative Work Environment and Harassment; Proselytising in the Workplace IV. Objections to Job Duties Grounded on Religion or Belief V. Let’s Shake on it? Social and Gender Relations in the Workplace VI. Religious Prayer and Dietary Considerations in the Workplace 6. Country Study Insights and Reasonable Accommodation I. The Limits of the Law II. The Added Value of Reasonable Accommodation for Religion and Belief in the European Context III. Arguments Against Reasonable Accommodation and Rebuttal