The wearing of a long beard at work cannot be prohibited
Publié le null - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
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Public and private employees may wear a beard
with religious connotations
. This is what the Conseil d'État held in its judgment of 12 February 2020 and the Cour de Cassation in its judgment of 8 July 2020.
The official is bound by an obligation of neutrality and must respect the principle of secularism. Its hierarchy can therefore prohibit any sign or symbol considered to be religious.
Conversely, the employer of the employee of a private company may not prohibit him from exhibiting his religion within the company unless he can demonstrate an incompatibility with the work entrusted to him.
This difference in status led the Conseil d'État and the Cour de Cassation to issue two similar judgments, but which nevertheless differ in their arguments. Can public and private employees wear a beard
with religious connotations
?
With regard to the public official, the Council of State considers that the wearing of a beard cannot be considered by itself as a sign of religious affiliation. The staff member cannot therefore be punished solely for refusing to cut his beard.
As regards the private employee, the Court of Cassation considers that, in order to dismiss his employee for this reason, the employer must demonstrate that the wearing of beards is detrimental to the tasks entrusted to the employee. Failing this, the dismissal is void because it is based only on a discriminatory ground.
