Question 16059 — religions and cults

Summary

Mr. Thomas Portes alerts the Minister of Labor and Solidarity on the restrictions imposed on the wearing of religious symbols in private companies and on the guarantees necessary to respect the principle of non-discrimination in the world of work. In private companies covered by the labor code, the principle of secularism does not apply to employees under the same conditions as to public service agents. The freedom to demonstrate one's religious beliefs constitute a fundamental freedom protected in particular by Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. In domestic law, Article L. 1121-1 of the Labor Code provides that restrictions placed on people's rights and individual and collective freedoms must be justified by the nature of the task to be accomplished and proportionate to the aim sought. Article L. 1132-1 of the same code Furthermore, it is prohibited to exclude a person from a recruitment procedure, or to sanction or dismiss an employee because of their religious beliefs. Since the law of August 8, 2016, article L. 1321-2-1 of the labor code allows companies to include in their internal regulations provisions establishing a principle of neutrality and restricting the manifestation of employees' beliefs, provided that these restrictions are justified by the exercise of other fundamental rights and freedoms or by the needs for the proper functioning of the company and proportionate to the aim sought. The Court of Cassation and the Court of Justice of the European Union have recalled that such clauses must be general, undifferentiated and strictly regulated. They also judged that the subjective preferences of customers or simple considerations of image commercial cannot, on their own, justify a restriction targeting a specific religious sign. However, several recent elements show that this framework remains insufficiently protective in practice. In her report published in December 2025 on discrimination based on religion, the Defender of Rights notes a significant increase in declared or observed discrimination. It also relates, from the complaints received by the institution, attacks on religious freedom constituting discrimination in several areas, including work. In 2025, several decisions by the Defender of Rights notably focused on refusals to hire women wearing headscarves in private companies, leading the institution to note direct or intersectional discrimination based on beliefs. religious and sex. These situations call into question the effectiveness of existing law, particularly in professions in contact with customers and in companies using neutrality clauses whose justification, scope and concrete effects may be insufficiently controlled. They also raise the question of the means available to the labor inspectorate and the competent authorities to verify compliance internal regulations, prevent discrimination in hiring and sanction disproportionate restrictions on the religious freedom of employees. In this context, he questions him about the data available to the Government concerning discrimination based on religion in employment, particularly against women wearing headscarves. He also questions him about the number of checks carried out by the labor inspectorate concerning the neutrality clauses included in the internal regulations of companies, as well as on the action taken when these clauses appear insufficiently justified or disproportionate. Finally, he asks about the measures envisaged to strengthen the effectiveness of the principle of religious non-discrimination in private companies, prevent discriminatory hiring refusals and guarantee that the principle of Neutrality cannot be used to exclude employees because of their religious beliefs.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

No timeline events have been ingested for this record yet.

Votes

No vote records are attached yet.

Versions

No version snapshots stored. Document URLs remain at the source.

Documents

No documents linked.

Sponsors

No sponsors or actors listed by the source.

Related records

No cross-record relationships stored yet.