In JQ v IR [2018] EUECJ C-68/17, the applicant, a Roman Catholic, worked as Head of the Internal Medicine Department of a hospital managed by IR, a limited liability company established under German law and subject to the supervision of the Archbishop of Cologne. He divorced his first wife and remarried in a civil ceremony but his first marriage was not annulled. When IR discovered this, it sacked him on the grounds that he had infringed the duty of loyalty arising under his employment contract. He challenged his dismissal on the grounds that a non-Roman Catholic employee would not have been treated in the same way. The German Federal Labour Court asked the CJEU for an advisory opinion as to the application of Council Directive 2000/78/EC of 27 November 2000 – the Equal Treatment Directive. Continue reading →