Man gets €34,000 payout for dismissal after religious refusal to shake woman's hand
The subdistrict court of The Hague awarded an employee a severance payment of €34,000 for wrongful dismissal. The man was fired after only three days in employment for refusing to shake a woman’s hand for religious reasons. He successfully argued that he hadn’t been discriminating against the woman because of her gender, but that his former employer discriminated against him based on his religion.
The 21-year-old man worked for a company that provides IT services to the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). He was employed as a work-from-home IT service employee on June 1 and was still on probation. Two days later, he refused to shake hands with a female team leader during an introduction at the COA, and the COA reported gender discrimination to his employer.
On June 4, the employer confronted the man about the incident, and he replied with an email explaining that he hadn’t intended to embarrass anyone but had acted out of religious conviction. That same day, his employer informed him that his employment would not be continued. When asked why, the employer said he was being dismissed because “there was an insufficient connection between your performance and the expectations within our organization.”
The man suspected his dismissal had to do with the handshaking incident and took the matter to court. He argued that he had not discriminated against the woman because of her gender, but that his employer discriminated against him because of his religion. The Subdistrict Court of The Hague ruled in the man’s favor.
“It is understandable that [the employer] must take into account the working environment and the associated neutrality policy of her client, the COA. Especially within an organization like the COA (but also at other organizations), men and women should be treated as equally as possible. This is a legitimate goal in itself,” the court ruled. “However, this is offset by [the employee]'s right not to be discriminated against based on their religious beliefs.
The court rejected the employer’s claim that the man was fired due to “insufficient connection,” saying that three days into employment was too early to draw that conclusion.
The subdistrict court added that, as a work-from-home IT employee, the issue of shaking hands was unlikely to be a major problem. The employer could have made arrangements with the COA for those situations when having to shake hands did come up. “For example, it could have been agreed that [the employee] would respectfully refrain from shaking hands with any colleague,” the court said.
The court ruled that the man was wrongfully dismissed and ordered his employer to pay him “fair compensation” of €34,000. Both parties have three months to appeal.
