Maria Miller MP for Basingstoke and Chair of Women an Equalities Selcet Committee has been granted an Urgent Question, to ask the Minister for Women and Equalities if she will make a Statement on the new Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruling enabling employers to “prohibit workers from wearing visible religious signs in the workplace; including female workers wearing Islamic headscarves....”.
Maria said “The new ruling was published on 14 March, is the first ruling of its type, and could be in conflict with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) judgement Eweida v United Kingdom 2013
There is a significant question to answer as to whether this new ruling could provide opportunity for greater discrimination on the grounds of religious belief. Allowing companies and organisations to prohibit religious dress and symbols based on the need for ‘neutrality’ could allow religious discrimination through the back door.”
Full text available on the Hansard Report