Islamophobia in labour relations? Recent jurisprudence on Muslim symbology in private business

Abstract

The growing and increasingly diversified religious offerings in our society are having a noticeable impact on the labour market. These new religious and social callings do not always receive clear and consistent responses, neither from employers nor from workers.
Alongside cultural mediation that seeks to resolve the demands and neighbourhood interests at stake, many large companies are incorporating religious mediators who understand the reasons put forward by workers with strong religious convictions in order to make them compatible, as far as possible, with the interests of companies and employers.
Islam is growing exponentially in Western Europe, both because of the waves of migration in the 21st century and because of the conversions of segments of the domestic population. The hypersensitivity of a Europe that, due to its Christian and secular roots, looks distrustfully at this new religious scenario, tends to accentuate its identity signs with populist policies, while rejecting Islam as if it were a foreign phenomenon.
This scenario takes place in public and private forums and is reflected in the business world, where the rights and duties of employers and workers can be influenced by religious demands, which are almost always linked to clothing, prayer, working hours and rest, thus introducing claims that are an exception to the common labour regime.
Between the aseptic acceptance and the systematic rejection of such exceptionalities, the continental and Anglo-Saxon legal systems, based on consolidated case law criteria, have arbitrated mechanisms that point out guidelines and ways to harmonise the interests of all parties, in a complex balance of values and rights.
In short, the growth of Islam in the West raises new questions for labour legislation and the specific world of companies, and both -the law and companies- must explore new ways to respond to the new religious challenges.