Religion, Equality and Employment in Europe ─ The Case for Reasonable Accommodation

The management of religious and ideological diversity remains a key challenge of our time, deeply entangled with debates about the nature of liberal democracy, equality, social cohesion, minorities and nationalism, foreign policy, and even terrorism. This book explores this challenge at the level of the workplace in Europe. People do not surrender their religious belief at the gates of the workplace, nor should they be required to do so. But what are the limits of accommodating religious belief in the work place, particularly when it clashes with other fundamental rights and freedoms? Using a comparative and socio-legal approach that emphasizes the practical role of human rights, anti-discrimination, and employment protection, this book argues for an enforceable right to reasonable accommodation on the grounds of religion or belief in the workplaces in Europe. In so doing, it draws on the case law of Europe's two supranational courts three country studies (Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK) as well as developments in the US and Canada. By offering the first book-length treatment of this issue, this book will be of significant interest to academics, policy-makers, and students interested in a deeper understanding of European and Western inclusion, freedom, and equality in a multicultural context. This title is a revised & edited dissertation. [Subject: Labor & Discrimination Law, Human Rights Law, Socio-Legal Studies, European Law]

Katayoun Alidadi is an Assistant Professor of Legal Studies at Bryant University (Smithfield, RI, USA) and a Research Associate at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology (Halle, Germany). Her work focuses on human rights, conflict of laws, employment law and the intersections of law and religion. She was awarded the 2013 Ius Commune Prize for her research on reasonable accommodation for religion and belief. Katayoun holds a PhD in law from the KULeuven (Leuven, Belgium) and an LL.M. from Harvard Law School (Cambridge, MA, USA).