Germany / Higher Labour Court of Rhineland Palatinate (Landesarbeitsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz) / 3 Sa 132/19 / ECLI:DE:LAGRLP:2019:1216.3Sa132.19.00

Country

Germany

Title

Germany / Higher Labour Court of Rhineland Palatinate (Landesarbeitsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz) / 3 Sa 132/19 / ECLI:DE:LAGRLP:2019:1216.3Sa132.19.00

View full Case

Year

2019

Decision/ruling/judgment date

Monday, December 16, 2019

Incident(s) concerned/related

Discrimination

Related Bias motivation

Religion

Groups affected

Muslims

Court/Body type

National Court

Court/Body

Higher Labour Court of Rhineland Palatinate (Landesarbeitsgericht Rheinland-Pfalz)

Key facts of the case

The plaintiff claims compensation because of an rejection of an application. The defendant had advertised an apprenticeship for office management. The plaintiff sent her application with a photograph attached that showed her wearing a headscarf, whereupon the defendant replied: "I assume that your application is surely not meant seriously and you surely only drafted an alibi letter to receive welfare benefit. My advice for the future: in case you ever wanted to write a serious application, do without the 'headdress'."

Main reasoning/argumentation

The court ruled that the plaintiff has the claim to damages in the amount of 1.500 Euro.

Is the case related to the application of the Framework Decision on Racism and Xenophobia, the Racial Equality Directive?

Key issues (concepts, interpretations) clarified by the case

The Court had to decide whether the plaintiff has a claim of damages on ground of discrimination.

Results (sanctions, outcome) and key consequences or implications of the case

The Court confirmed the prior instance decision.

Key quotation in original language and its unofficial translation into English with reference details

"Im vorliegenden Fall gilt, dass die zumindest auch durch das religiös motivierte Tragen eines Kopftuches verursachte Absage durch das Absageschreiben deutlich indiziert ist, auch wenn das Kopftuch nicht als Grund für die Absage benannt wird sondern nur Gegenstand eines „Ratschlags“ für künftige Bewerbungen ist."

"In this case, the rejection letter cleary indicates that the rejection is at least also caused by the religiously motivated wearing of a headscarf, even though the headscarf is not named as the reason for the rejection but only as a matter of "advise" for future applications."

DISCLAIMERThe information presented here is collected under contract by the FRA's research network FRANET. The information and views contained do not necessarily reflect the views or the official position of the FRA.