Published December 20, 2024 at 3:58 p.m. Domestic. An airline has admitted that it discriminated against a Muslim woman by denying her continued employment on the grounds that she was not prepared to work without a veil. The company has agreed to pay the woman SEK 75,000 – half of what the DO originally demanded.
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– Bans on religious symbols risk excluding Muslim women from professional life, which we see as very serious, and we are therefore pleased that the company has admitted in this case that the woman was discriminated against, says Sandra Danowsky, a lawyer at the DO's legal unit, in a statement.
The woman had applied for and received employment with a staffing agency that recruits ground staff on behalf of the airline. The employment was to begin with training, but on the first day of training, the woman was informed that the airline's uniform regulations did not allow her to continue wearing her veil during working hours, as the regulations contain a ban on religious symbols.
The airline has stated that the ban on religious symbols was part of a neutrality policy. The company argued, among other things, that the company's customers had a legitimate expectation of being met with neutrality. They also argued that the policy was needed to reduce the risk of threats and violence, both from customers and between colleagues.
The DO's assessment, however, was that the regulations entailed poorer treatment of people who express their religion and were therefore not neutral in their design. The DO also considered that the purposes the airline had stated for demonstrating neutrality were not such that they could be considered to justify a neutrality policy. According to the DO, it was a matter of “direct discrimination or indirect discrimination”.
The company has now admitted discrimination and will pay compensation of 75,000 kronor to the woman.
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