The German Federal Employment Court recently submitted a question regarding a possible discrimination to the European Court of Justice. An employer, who is part of the evangelic church in Germany, requested the membership in the evangelic church or any connected church in a job advertisement. A rejected applicant, who was not a member of the evangelic church, filed a claim against her rejection. Therefore, the German Federal Employment Court submitted the following main question to the European Court of Justice: Does Art. 4 para. 2 of European Directive 2000/78/EC, allow that an employer may bindingly determine that a specific religion of an applicant is a necessary, lawful and justified business requirement for the kind of work or the circumstances of the kind of work pursuant to the ethos of the employer?
Germany