The Genuine Occupational Requirement, safeguarding, another face-veil ban – just a normal week…
The Genuine Occupational Requirement again
On Thursday, Advocate General Wathelet published his Opinion in IR (Social policy – Occupational activities of churches – Opinion) [2018] EUECJ C-68/17 O, on the sacking of a Head Department in a Roman Catholic hospital in Germany after he divorced his first wife and remarried in a civil ceremony without a prior annulment: we noted it here. AGs’ Opinions are merely advisory and do not bind the Court; however, in a recent judgment, Vera Egenberger v Evangelisches Werk für Diakonie und Entwicklung eV [2018] EUECJ C-414/16, which we noted here, the Grand Chamber took a hard line in reaffirming that, in cases where religion or belief organisations impose a Genuine Occupational Requirement when recruiting staff, that requirement must be both genuine, legitimate and justifiable. We should be surprised if the Court were to disagree with AG Wathelet on this occasion.
The Diocese of Canterbury, safeguarding and sacramental confession